1. Introduction Biography The Natural World Of Cain

Biography

George Gordon Byron, since 1822 - Noel-Byron, since 1798 - 6th Baron Byron (English George Gordon Byron (Noel), 6th Baron Byron; January 22, 1788, London - April 19, 1824, Missolungi, Ottoman Greece), usually referred to simply as Lord Byron, is an English romantic poet who captivated the imagination of all of Europe with his “gloomy selfishness” [5]. Along with Percy Shelley and John Keats, he represents the younger generation of British romantics. His alter ego Childe Harold became the prototype for countless Byronic heroes in the literature of various European countries. 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 Alexander Pope. The poet took part in the Greek War of Independence, the national hero of Greece. Ordon is Byron's second personal name, given to him at baptism and coinciding with his mother's maiden name. Byron's father, claiming the Scottish domain of his father-in-law, used "Gordon" as the second part of the surname (Byron-Gordon), and George himself was enrolled in the 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 of "Baron Byron", after which, as is customary among peers of this rank, his common name became "Lord Byron" or simply "Byron". Subsequently, Byron's mother-in-law bequeathed the property to the poet with the condition to bear her last name - Noel, and the royal patent allowed Lord Byron, as an exception, to bear the name Noel before the 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 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 - Burun. [Source not specified 949 days] 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, in accordance with the reprimand, his surname to Byron. Especially the Byrons rose under Henry VIII, who, during the abolition of Catholic monasteries, endowed Sir John the little with the Great Beard with the estates of the wealthy Newsted Abbey in Nottingham County.Newsted Abbey, destroyed during the Tudor secularization - the Byron ancestral domain During the reign of Elizabeth, the Byron family was suppressed, but the surname passed to the illegitimate son of one of them. Subsequently, during the English Revolution, the Byrons distinguished themselves by their unshakable devotion to the house of the Stuarts, for which Charles I elevated a representative of this family to the rank of peerage with the title of Baron Rochdel. One of the most famous representatives of this family was Admiral John Byron, famous for his extraordinary adventures and wanderings in the Pacific Ocean; The sailors who loved him but considered him unlucky called him "Foulweather Jack". The eldest son of Admiral Byron, Captain John Byron (1756-1791), was a carousel and a bum. In 1778 he married the former Marquise of Comarten. 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, according to the calculation, to Catherine Gordon (d. 1811), the sole heiress of the wealthy George Gordon, Esq. She came from the famous Scottish family of the Gordons, in whose veins the blood of Scottish kings flowed (through Annabella Stewart). From this, the second marriage of his father, the future poet was born in 1788. Childhood The poverty in which Byron was born and from which the title of lord did not save him, gave direction to his future career. When he was born (Hall Street, London, January 22, 1788), his father had already lost his family fortune, and his mother had 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 a private school for a year, then transferred to a classical gymnasium. Many stories are told about Byron's childhood antics. The Gray sisters, who nursed little Byron, found that caressing could do anything with him, but his mother always lost her temper from his disobedience and threw anything at the boy. He often responded to his mother's outbursts with ridicule, but once, as he himself says, a knife was taken from him, with which he wanted to stab himself. He did not study well in the gymnasium, and Mary Gray, who read him the psalms and the Bible, did 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, fell into a hysterical fit. In 1799 he entered the school of Dr. Gleni, where he spent two years and all the time healed his sore leg, after which he recovered enough to put on his boots. During these two years he studied very little, but he read the entire rich library of the doctor. Before leaving for school in Harrow, Byron fell in love again - with another cousin, Margarita Parker. In 1801 he left for 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 had been 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 more he distinguished himself in 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: by publishing the collection, Byron became a completely different person. Merciless criticism of "Leisure Hours" appeared in the "Edinburgh Review" only a year later, during which the poet wrote a large number of poems. Had this criticism appeared immediately after the publication of the book, Byron, perhaps, would have completely abandoned poetry. “Six months before the merciless criticism, I composed 214 pages of the novel, a 380-verse poem, 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." It was with this satire that he answered the Edinburgh Review. The criticism of the first book terribly upset Byron, but his answer - "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers" - he published only in the spring of 1809. The satire's success was enormous and was able to satisfy the wounded poet. First trip In June 1809, Byron went on a journey. He visited Portugal, Spain, Albania, Greece, Turkey and Asia Minor, where he swam across the Dardanelles, which he was later very proud of. It can be assumed that the young poet, having won a brilliant victory over his literary enemies, went abroad contented and happy, but this was not the case. 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 both print and verbally protested against this, emphasizing that Childe Harold is only a figment of the imagination. Thomas Moore spoke in defense of Byron that he was too poor to support a harem. Besides, Byron was worried not only about financial difficulties. During this time he lost his mother, and although he never got along with her, he nevertheless grieved very much. Childe Harold ". Glory On February 27, 1812, Byron delivered his first speech in the House of Lords, which was a great success: “Isn't there enough blood [rebels] on your criminal code that you still need to shed it so that it cries out to heaven and testifies against you?” [6] “ The swarthy race from the banks of the Ganges will shake your empire of tyrants to its foundations ”[7]. Two days after this performance, the first two Childe Harold songs appeared. The poem was a fabulous success, and 14,000 copies of it were sold in one day, which immediately put the author among the first literary celebrities. "After reading Childe Harold, he says," no one wants to listen to my prose, just as I myself do not want to. " Why "Childe Harold" was such a success, Byron himself did not know and said only: "One morning I woke up and saw myself famous." Childe Harold's journey captivated.