After a little research into the life of Lord Byron, I almost wish there was a hell, for surely he deserves to be there.
I got started on Byron when I accidentally came upon the BBC Radio 4 Facebook page. There I found a link to an audio about Lord Byron's daughter, Allegra, who was sent off to a convent and died there at the age of five. That's bad enough, but Byron ignored her letters asking him to visit her. After listening, I starting reading bits and pieces of Byron's story and the anger in me grew.
Byron couldn't resist the advances of an 18 year old girl, Claire Clairmont (half-sister to Mary Shelley), who was dazzled by his good looks and his fame. He spurned her at first, but succumbed to primal urges. This is from a letter he wrote to his half-sister, Augusta Leigh (also one of his sex partners), in 1816,
Now don’t scold; but what could I do?--a foolish girl, in spite of all I could say or do, would come after me, or rather went before--for I found her here--and I have had all the plague possible to persuade her to go back again; but at last she went. Now, dearest, I do most truly tell thee that I could not help this, that I did all I could to prevent it, and have at last put an end to it. I was not in love, nor have any love left for any; but I could not exactly play the Stoic with a woman who had scrambled eight hundred miles to unphilosophise me. Besides, I had been regaled of late with so many "two courses and a desert" (Alas!) of aversion, that I was fain to take a little love (if pressed particularly) by way of novelty.As a result of his taking "a little love," a daughter, Allegra, was born in January 1817. When Allegra was a toddler, Claire gave over the care of the child to Byron. After she became a bother to him, he arranged for her to be sent to a convent run by the Capuchin nuns in Bagnacavallo, a distance of about 15 miles from Palazzo Guiccioli where Byron stayed in Ravenna, Italy. (Byron's mistress, wife of Count Gicciolo, is said not to have liked the little girl.) Byron had many mistresses in the course of his life; I'm only including the bare minimum of detail, since the story of Byron is full of him thumbing his nose at society, politics, sex, and lots of writing. To learn more about little Allegra, please listen to the BBC audio.
A long introduction to a short poem!
Click to enlarge for easier reading. © Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. The background is the portion of a letter to Byron from a nun in which Allegra addresses her father. The original is found at the Bodleian Libraries at Oxford. I have no information on the Allegra picture, but since it is in the public domain, I felt free to alter it. A version can be found at Wikipedia.
Head over to Reading to the Core for this week's Poetry Friday Round-Up!
I understand your anger. To think of a small innocent child receiving the betrayal of a narcissistic man. Unfortunately, these things happen today. I featured your mockingbird poem today with a few words about how our writing should be authentic. https://reflectionsontheteche.wordpress.com/2015/08/21/your-songs-are-a-tribute/
ReplyDeleteI'm heading over to your blog right now! Thanks, Margaret!
DeleteA terrible, sad story, Diane, yet beautifully captured in your poem. Your presentation is also worthy of note.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, a sad story. Yet, Byron's work is assigned frequently to students, which leads me to the age-old question of "can you separate the art from the artist?"
DeleteThere's plenty of hell on earth, isn't there? Poor child. And, as Margaret notes, today still.
ReplyDeleteI still believe in the Light, though, and that ultimately dark will not overcome it. Thanks for for giving voice to the silenced, as you often do.
There are people who are good, people who are bad, but most are somewhere in between. Regardless of how it is done--religion, empathy, reason--I think we can move toward the Good.
DeletePoor little Allegra. She should be featured in your angels project. (Is that how you found her story?) That little one has earned her wings.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'll write another for or about her. There are plenty of little angel grave markers in the old cemeteries around here.
DeleteI found her story through the BBC and it became a short term (2 days) obsession.
Did you read Harriet Beecher Stowe's epic takedown of Louse-Lord Byron in the September 1869 issue of The Atlantic? http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1869/09/the-true-story-of-lady-byrons-life/305445/ Stowe's 5,000-word essay is well worth reading. There was only this brief mention of Allegra: "There was an unfortunate child of sin, born with the curse upon her, over whose wayward nature Lady Byron watched with a mother's tenderness. She was the one who could have patience when the patience of every one else failed; and though her task was a difficult one, from the strange, abnormal propensities to evil in the object of her cares, yet Lady Byron never faltered and never gave over, till death took the responsibility from her hands."
ReplyDeleteNo, I haven't read it, but I will! As far as I can tell, Lady Byron wasn't much involved with Allegra. (I think Lady Byron must have had a very good publicist!) Unlike the instantaneous replies that are required today, in the 1800s people could send well-thought out responses and it would take a few weeks or months for delivery. The news of scandalous events could fade, grow, and/or be manipulated over that period. The "truth" was probably totally fiction by time it arrived in America for Harriet B. Stowe to get her undies in a knot over.
DeleteActually, the article is based upon Harriet's personal encounter with Lady Byron. I read The Atlantic lost a huge chunk of its readership over it. Here's what Harriet had to say: "On the occasion of a second visit to England, in 1856, the writer received a note from Lady Byron, indicating that she wished to have some private, confidential conversation upon important subjects, and inviting her for that purpose to spend a day with her at her country-seat near London.
DeleteThe writer went and spent a day with Lady Byron alone, and the object of the invitation was explained to her. Lady Byron was in such a state of health that her physicians had warned her that she had very little time to live. She was engaged in those duties and retrospections which every thoughtful person finds necessary, when coming deliberately and with open eyes to the boundaries of this mortal life.
At that time there was a cheap edition of Byron's works in contemplation, intended to bring his writings into circulation among the masses, and the pathos arising from the story of his domestic misfortunes was one great means relied on for giving it currency.
Under these circumstances, some of Lady Byron's friends had proposed the question to her, whether she had not a responsibility to society for the truth; whether she did right to allow these writings to gain influence over the popular mind, by giving a silent consent to what she knew to be utter falsehoods.
Lady Byron's whole life had been passed in the most heroic self-abnegation and self-sacriflce, and she had now to consider whether one more act of self-denial was not required of her before leaving this world, —namely, to declare the absolute truth, no matter at what expense to her own feelings.
For this reason it was her desire to recount the whole history to a person of another country, and entirely out of the sphere of personal and local feelings which might be supposed to influence those in the country and station in life where the events really happened, in order that she might be helped by such a person's views in making up an opinion as to her own duty.
The interview had almost the solemnity of a death-bed avowal. Lady Byron stated the facts which have been embodied in this article, and gave to the writer a paper containing a brief memorandum of the whole, with the dates affixed."
It is such a long article. I got to the point where I skimmed--almost ran through it. I don't doubt that Lady Byron was scapegoated, but this almost made me laugh: "She seemed so frail, she had suffered so much, she stood at such a height above the comprehension of the coarse and common world, that the author had a feeling that it would almost be like violating a shrine, to ask her to come forth from the sanctuary of a silence where she had so long abode and plead her cause." And then it said, "Lady Byron lingered four years after this interview, to the wonder of her physicians and all her friends."
DeleteDrama Queen? Maybe living on spite? Ha, ha, we've all come across little old ladies like that! Maybe when I retire I'll read a modern day biography of Lady Byron. (Check out the Wikipedia article on Ada Lovelace, Lady Byron's daughter!) All of Byron's acquaintances are of interest!
Hidden in the depths of the essay is a bit about Ada, whose brilliance was credited to Byron genetics. I'd say it had a little more to do with the woman who actually raised her.
DeleteBoth parents, though highly intelligent, left a lot to be desired as far as personal relationships/parenting skills were concerned. Don't be too quick to swallow Stowe's "Vindication" whole. This is taken from the NYPL's A Guide to the Lady Byron Manuscript Material in the Pforzheimer Collection: "In 1869, Stowe published Lady Byron Vindicated, which portrayed her subject as a victim of Lord Byron’s depravity and for a time damaged his legacy. Some recent biographers have painted Lady Byron as a cold and cruel woman who dominated and ruined the lives of the people around her. Lady Byron’s character remains a point of contention, and she will probably always have her advocates and her detractors."
DeleteWe've got a lot of researching to do before drawing too many conclusions! Okay, we can conclude that Byron was an a**hole.
I love it when you get your dander up, Diane. :-) Byron has never been a favorite, because of his debauched character. I think some people excuse their bad behavior because they are "artists." As if that gives one license to be cruel.
ReplyDeleteNo excuse for cruelty!
DeleteI am in the middle of Katherine Boo's Beyond The Beautiful Forevers, about families in the slums outside the gorgeous Mumbai airport, much in it too about the betrayal of man to the children. I love reading the outrage, Diane.
ReplyDeleteMany people at the library have recommended that title. Maybe one day I'll get to it!
DeleteWhat an interesting, albeit devastating story. Poor Allegra! I knew only the barest details about Byron's life -- philandering, yes, but didn't know the extent of his cruelty. I do like your poem, however, and the lovely presentation.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jama. People from different times always fascinate me.
DeleteI was going to say that in our day, things are written up so quickly and in such abundance that people in the future won't have to wonder. However, even in our time, records are "tidied up" and "edited"; history has been rewritten, etc., and lies are spoken as truths. I'm not sure what will end up being told about this age in history - so much is already false talk and teachings.
ReplyDeleteLies are spoken loudly and often, so that in the mind of those hearing them, they seem to be true. It's a verbal sleight of hand, and some have gotten extremely good at it.
DeleteJust as interesting to read the comments as to read your post!
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree with katswhiskers about your presentation -- especially perfect for this one!
DeleteI'm happy you like the presentation, it took a little work to get it so that the letter could be read behind the poem's text. I think it could be tweaked some more, but so can most things I do! ;-)
DeleteHi there Diane, wow, this is all very interesting and illuminating information. Thank you for sharing this with such great depth. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd yet, I only "glanced" at the history of these interesting people. I think if I do more in-depth reading, I'll change my mind several times over about responsibility and blame.
DeleteDeeply sad research. Your poem is excellent in voicing your anger
ReplyDeleteMuch love...