Coordinates	21°57′″N95°16′″N
name	Byron Lee
background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
birth name	Byron Aloysius St. Elmo Lee
alias	The Dragon
birth date	June 27, 1935
died	November 04, 2008 (aged 73)Kingston, Jamaica
origin	Christiana, Manchester, Jamaica
instrument	Bass guitar
genre	Ska, rocksteady, reggae, calypso, soca, mas
associated acts	Byron Lee and the Dragonaires
website	http://byronleemusic.com
notable instruments	}}

Byron Lee OD, OJ (born Byron Aloysius St. Elmo Lee, 27 June 1935, Christiana, Manchester, Jamaica, died 4 November 2008, Kingston, Jamaica) was a musician, record producer, and entrepreneur, best known for his work as leader of Byron Lee and the Dragonaires.

Biography

Lee was born in Christiana in Manchester Parish to an Afro-Jamaican mother and a Chinese father (a language teacher) originally from Kowloon, Hong Kong. His mother was from Auchtembeddie, where mento and junkanoo were popular musical forms, and his family actively upheld the cultural and musical traditions of their African ancestors. The family moved to the Mountain View Gardens area of Kingston when Lee was around 8 or 9. He learned to play piano at a convent school in Mandeville, but put music on hold when he became a member of the Jamaican national football team. He taught himself to play bass on a homemade instrument, and around 1950, along with his friend Carl Brady, he formed the first incarnation of the Dragonaires, named after the college football team that they played for, at that time concentrating on mento. The band turned professional in 1956 and went on to become one of Jamaica's leading ska bands, continuing since and taking in other genres such as calypso, Soca, and Mas.

According to Michael E. Veal in his book ''Dub : soundscapes and shattered songs in Jamaican reggae'' *Wesleyan University Press, 2007), Byron Lee is known to have introduced the electric bass guitar to Jamaica in late 1959 or 1960. However, the reason Lee began to use the electric bass as opposed to its stand-up counterpart had nothing to do with sound. Rather, it was a way for Lee to avoid carrying the large and heavy stand-up bass to the truck to move from gig to gig. The bass guitar soon gained popularity throughout the country and soon became the standard. The electric bass' louder, clearer, and more in your face sound soon changed the entire sound of Jamaican music entirely, especially after Skatalites bassist Lloyd Brevett took a liking to it.

Lee also worked as a producer, producing many of the ska singles by The Maytals, and his entrepreneurial skills led to him setting up the ''Byron Lee's Spectacular Show'' tour, which involved several Jamaican acts (including The Maytals) touring the Caribbean. He also became the head of distribution in Jamaica for Atlantic Records. Lee purchased the West Indies Records Limited (WIRL) recording studios from Edward Seaga after fire had destroyed the pressing plant on the same site, and renamed it Dynamic Sounds, soon having a new pressing facility built on the site. It soon became one of the best-equipped studios in the Caribbean, attracting both local and international recording artists, including Paul Simon and The Rolling Stones, who recorded their famous song "Angie" there. Lee's productions included Boris Gardiner's ''Reggae Happening'', Hopeton Lewis's ''Grooving Out on Life'', and The Slickers' "Johnny Too Bad". Dynamic also acts as one of Jamaica's leading record distributors.

In 1990, Lee inaugurated what became an annual event, the ''Byron Lee Jamaica Carnival'', held on Constant Spring Road, and attended by hundreds of thousands of people that united the "uptown" and "downtown" residents of Kingston, an event that Lee calls "the happiest moment in my life". Lee had performed with the Dragonaires at carnivals around the Caribbean since the mid-1970s, and chose the location for the carnival to attract revellers from all of Jamaica's classes, stating "The biggest problem was that most Jamaicans said it wouldn't work, that it isn't a carnival country, but I persisted 'cause I believed in it. I wanted carnival to go to the public. You always had other carnivals that were held mostly indoor, where persons had to pay to get in. I went to the people and choose Half-Way Tree where uptown and downtown meet. That is where the route will remain". While in the early days of ska, Lee was credited in taking it from the ghettos and giving it appeal among Jamaica's "uptown" middle- and upper-classes, he has been credited with taking soca in the opposite direction, popularising a genre that had previously only been enjoyed in Jamaica among the upper classes, with the island's working class.

Lee missed the Jamaica Carnival in 2007 as he was receiving treatment for bladder cancer after having surgery in Florida, and no longer appeared on stage with the Dragonaires, although he was still involved in the band's management, and was involved with the festival again in 2008. A concert was held in his honour on June 30, 2007, to celebrate his 50 years in the music industry, with artists performing including fellow cancer-survivors Myrna Hague and Pluto Shervington. Proceeds went to the Jamaica Cancer Society.

Lee was awarded the Order of Distinction in 1982, upgraded to Commander level on 15 October 2007, in recognition of his "contribution in the fields of Music and Entertainment both locally and internationally".

In October 2008, after receiving treatment for several weeks in Florida, Lee returned to spend his final days in Jamaica. In a ceremony at the University Hospital of the West Indies on October 26, 2008, he was awarded the Order of Jamaica (OJ). Lee died on the 4th of November 2008, aged 73. In a statement on the day of Lee's death, the Prime Minister of Jamaica, Bruce Golding, said "Jamaica, and indeed the world, has lost another great music pioneer with the passing this morning of Byron Lee, one of the greatest band leaders ever to grace the entertainment stages of the world".

References

External links

Band web page

Byron Lee's Bio

Eder, Bruce "[ Byron Lee Biography]", ''Allmusic'', Macrovision Corporation

Byron Lee at Roots Archives

Internet Movie Database">Byron Lee at the Internet Movie Database

Category:1935 births Category:2008 deaths Category:People from Manchester Parish Category:Deaths from bladder cancer Category:Cancer deaths in Jamaica Category:Jamaican people of Chinese descent Category:Jamaican record producers Category:Jamaican reggae musicians

de:Byron Lee fr:Byron Lee

Coordinates	21°57′″N95°16′″N
name	The Right HonourableThe Lord ByronFRS
birth name	George Gordon Byron
birth date	January 22, 1788
birth place	Dover, Kent,England
death date	April 19, 1824
death place	Missolonghi, Aetolia-Acarnania, Greece
occupation	Poet, Politician
nationality	British
movement	Romanticism
notableworks	''Don Juan'', ''Childe Harold's Pilgrimage''
children	Ada Lovelace, Allegra Byron
influences	John Milton, Alexander Pope, Edmund Spenser
influenced	Alexander Pushkin, Ivan Turgenev, Mikhail Lermontov, Seamus Heaney, Ilia Chavchavadze, Ebenezer Elliott, Knut Hamsun, John Clare, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Anne Brontë, Gustave Flaubert
portaldisp	}}

George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, later George Gordon Noel, 6th Baron Byron, FRS (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), commonly known simply as Lord Byron, was an English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement. Amongst Byron's best-known works are the brief poems ''She Walks in Beauty'', ''When We Two Parted'', and ''So, we'll go no more a roving'', in addition to the narrative poems ''Childe Harold's Pilgrimage'' and ''Don Juan''. He is regarded as one of the greatest British poets and remains widely read and influential.

Byron was celebrated in life for aristocratic excesses including huge debts, numerous love affairs, rumors of a scandalous incestuous liaison with his half-sister, and self-imposed exile. He was famously described by Lady Caroline Lamb as "mad, bad and dangerous to know". He travelled to fight against the Ottoman Empire in the Greek War of Independence, for which Greeks revere him as a national hero. He died from a fever contracted while in Missolonghi in Greece.

Name

Byron's names changed throughout his life. He was the son of Captain John "Mad Jack" Byron and his second wife, the former Catherine Gordon (d. 1811), a descendant of Cardinal Beaton and heiress of the Gight estate in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Byron's father had previously seduced the married Marchioness of Caermarthen, and after she divorced her husband the Earl, had married her. His treatment of her was described as "brutal and vicious", and she died after having given birth to two daughters, only one of which survived: Byron's half-sister, Augusta.

Byron's paternal grandparents were Vice-Admiral The Hon. John "Foulweather Jack" Byron and Sophia Trevanion. Vice Admiral John Byron had circumnavigated the globe, and was the younger brother of the 5th Baron Byron, known as "the Wicked Lord".

He was christened "George Gordon Byron" at St Marylebone Parish Church after his maternal grandfather, George Gordon of Gight, a descendant of James I of Scotland, who had committed suicide in 1779.

In order to claim his second wife's estate in Scotland, Byron's father had taken the additional surname "Gordon", becoming "John Byron Gordon", and he was occasionally styled "John Byron Gordon of Gight". Byron himself used this surname for a time and was registered at school in Aberdeen as "George Byron Gordon". At the age of 10, he inherited the English Barony of Byron of Rochdale, becoming "Lord Byron", and eventually dropped the double surname (though after this point his surname was secondary to his peerage).

When Byron's mother-in-law, Judith Noel died in 1822, her will required that he change his surname to "Noel" in order to inherit half her estate, and so he obtained a Royal Warrant allowing him to "take and use the surname of Noel only". The Royal Warrant also allowed him to "subscribe the said surname of Noel before all titles of honour", and from that point he signed himself "Noel Byron" (the usual signature of a peer being merely the peerage, in this case simply "Byron"). It is speculated that this was so that his initals would read "N.B." mimicing those of his hero, Napoleon Bonaparte. He was also sometimes referred to as "Lord Noel Byron", as if "Noel" were part of his title, and likewise his wife was sometimes called "Lady Noel Byron". Lady Byron eventually succeeded to the Barony of Wentworth, becoming "Lady Wentworth".

Early Life

John Byron married his second wife for the same reason he married his first: her fortune. Byron's mother had to sell her land and title to pay her new husband's debts, and in the space of two years the large estate, worth some £23,500, had been squandered, leaving the former heiress with an annual income in trust of only £150. In a move to avoid his creditors, Catherine accompanied her profligate husband to France in 1786, but returned to England at the end of 1787 in order to gave birth to her son on English soil. He was born on January 22 in lodgings on Holles Street in London.

Catherine moved back to Aberdeenshire in 1790, where Byron spent his childhood. His father soon joined them in their lodgings in Queen Street, but the couple quickly separated. Catherine regularly experienced mood swings and bouts of melancholy, which could be partly explained by her husband's continuing to appear in order to borrow money from her. As a result, she fell even further into debt to support his demands. It was once of these importunate loans which allowed him to travel to Valenciennes, France, where he died in 1791.

When Byron's great-uncle, the "wicked" Lord Byron, died on 21 May 1798, the 10-year-old boy became the 6th Baron Byron of Rochdale and inherited the ancestral home, Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire. His mother proudly took him to England, but the Abbey was in an embarassing state of disrepair and rather than live there, his mother decided to rent to Lord Grey de Ruthyn, among others, during his adolescence.

Described as "a woman without judgment or self-command", Catherine either spoiled and indulged her son or aggravated him with her capricious stubbornness. Her drinking disgusted him, and he often mocked her for being short and corpulent, which made it difficult for her to catch him to discipline him. She once retaliated and, in a fit of temper, referred to him as "a lame brat".

Birth Defect

From birth, Byron suffered from an deformity of his right foot. Generally referred to as a "clubfoot", some modern medical experts maintain that it was a consequence of infantile paralysis (poliomyelitis), and others that it was a dysplasia, a failure of the bones to form properly. Whatever the cause, he was afflicted with a limp that caused him lifelong psychological and physical misery, aggravated by painful and pointless "medical treatment" in his childhood and the nagging suspicion that with proper care it might have been cured. He was extremely self-conscious about this from a young age, nicknaming himself '''' (French for "the limping devil", after the nickname given to Asmodeus by Alain-René Lesage in his 1707 novel of the same name). Although he often wore specially made shoes in an attempt to hide the deformed foot, he refused to wear any type of brace that might improve the limp.

John Galt felt his oversensitivity to the "innocent fault in his foot was unmanly and excessive" because the limp was "not greatly inconspicuous." He first met Byron on a voyage to Sardinia and didn't realize he had any deficiency for several days, and still could not tell at first if the lameness was a temporary injury or not. But by the time he met Byron he was an adult and had worked to develop "a mode of walking across a room by which it was scarcely at all perceptible". The motion of the ship at sea may also have helped to create a favorable first impression and hide any deficiencies in his gait, but Galt's biography is also described as being "rather well-meant than well-written", so Galt may be guilty of minimizing a defect that was actually still quite noticeable.

'Anticipated Life' and The Poet's Psyche

"I am such a strange mélangé of good and evil that it would be difficult to describe me."

As a boy, his character is described as a "mixture of affectionate sweetness and playfulness, by which it was impossible not to be attached", alhough he also exhibited "silent rages, moody sullenness and revenge" with a precocious bent for attachment and obsession. He described his first intense feelings at age eight for Mary Duff, his distant cousin:

"How very odd that I should have been so devotedly fond of that girl, at an age when I could neither feel passion, nor know the meaning of the word and the effect! My mother used always to rally me about this childish amour, and at last, many years after, when I was sixteen, she told me one day, 'O Byron, I have had a letter from Edinburgh, and your old sweetheart, Mary Duff, is married to Mr C***.' And what was my answer? I really cannot explain or account for my feelings at that moment, but they nearly threw me into convulsions...How the deuce did all this occur so early? Where could it originate? I certainly had no sexual ideas for years afterwards; and yet my misery, my love for that girl were so violent, that I sometimes doubt if I have ever been really attached since. Be that as it may, hearing of her marriage several years after was like a thunder-stroke — it nearly choked me—to the horror of my mother and the astonishment and almost incredulity of every body. And it is a phenomenon in my existence (for I was not eight years old) which has puzzled, and will puzzle me to the latest hour of it; and lately, I know not why, the recollection (not the attachment) has recurred as forcibly as ever...But, the more I reflect, the more I am bewildered to assign any cause for this precocity of affection."

Byron also became attached to Margaret Parker, another distant cousin,. While his recollection of his love for Mary Duff is that he was ignorant of adult sexuality during this time, and was bewildered as to the source of the intensity of his feelings, he would later confess that:

"My passions were developed very early — so early, that few would believe me — if I were to state the period — and the facts which accompanied it. Perhaps this was one of the reasons that caused the anticipated melancholy of my thoughts — having anticipated life."

This is the only reference Byron himself makes to the event, and he is ambiguous as to how old he was when it occured. After his death, his lawyer wrote to a mutual friend telling him a "singular fact" about Byron's life which was "scarcely fit for narration". But he disclosed it nonetheless, thnking it might explain Byron's sexual "propensities":

"When nine years old at his mother's house a [F]ree Scotch girl [May, sometimes called Mary, Gray, one of his first caretakers] used to come to bed to him and play tricks with his person."

Gray later used these sexual intimacies as leverage to ensure his silence if he were tempted to disclose the "low company" she kept during drinking binges. She was later dismissed, supposedly for beating Byron when he was 11.

A few years later, while he was still a child, Lord Grey (unrelated to May Grey), a suitor of his mother's, also made sexual advances to him. Bryon's personality has been characterized as exceptionally proud and sensitive, especially when it came to his his deformity. And although Byron was a very self-centered individual, it is probable that like most children, he would have been deeply disturbed by these sexual advances. His extreme reaction to seeing his mother flirting outrageously with Lord Grey after the incident suggests this; he did not tell her of Gray's conduct toward him, he simply refused to speak to him again and ignored his mother's commands to be reconciled.

Bryon's proclivity for, and experimentation in, bisexuality may be a result of his being sexually imprinted by both genders at an early age. Leslie Marchand, Byron's recent biographer, theorizes that Lord Grey's advances prompted Bryon's later sexual liaisons with young men at Harrow and Cambridge.

While he desired to be seen as sophisticated, uncaring and invincible, he actually cared deeply what people thought of him. He believed his tendency to melancholy and depression was inherited, and he wrote in 1821, "I am not sure that long life is desirable for one of my temper & constitutional depression of Spirits." He later earned a reputation as being extravagant, courageous, unconventional, eccentric, flamboyant and controversial. He was independent and given to extremes of temper; on at least one trip, his travelling companions were so puzzled by his mood swings they thought he was mentally ill.

In spite of these difficulties and eccentricties, Byron was noted for the extreme loyalty he inspired among his friends.

Education and Early Loves

Byron received his early formal education at Aberdeen Grammar School, and in August 1799, entered the school of Dr. William Glennie, in Dulwich. Placed under the care of a Dr. Bailey, he was encouraged to exercise in moderation, but could not restrain himself from "violent" bouts in an attempt to overcompensate for his deformed foot. His mother interfered with his studies, often withdrawing him from school, with the result that he lacked discipline and his classical studies were neglected.

In 1801 he was sent to Harrow, where he remained until July 1805. An undistinguished student and an unskilled cricketeer, he did represent the school during the very first Eton v Harrow cricket match at Lord's in 1805,

His lack of moderation was not just restricted to physical exercise. Byron fell in love with Mary Chaworth, whom he met while at school, and she was the reason he refused to return to Harrow in September 1803. His mother wrote, "He has no indisposition that I know of but love, desperate love, the worst of all maladies in my opinion. In short, the boy is distractedly in love with Miss Chaworth." In Byron's later memoirs, "Mary Chaworth is portrayed as the first object of his adult sexual feelings."

Byron finally returned in January 1804, to a more settled period which saw the formation of a circle of emotional involvements with other Harrow boys, which he recalled with great vividness: "My School friendships were with ''me passions'' (for I was always violent)." The most enduring of those was with John FitzGibbon, 2nd Earl of Clare — four years Byron's junior — whom he was to meet unexpectedly many years later in Italy (1821). His nostalgic poems about his Harrow friendships, ''Childish Recollections'' (1806), express a prescient "consciousness of sexual differences that may in the end make England untenable to him".

"Ah! Sure some stronger impulse vibrates here, Which whispers friendship will be doubly dear To one, who thus for kindred hearts must roam, And seek abroad, the love denied at home."

The following autumn he attended Trinity College, Cambridge., where he met and formed a close friendship with the younger John Edleston. About his "protégé" he wrote, "He has been my almost constant associate since October, 1805, when I entered Trinity College. His voice first attracted my attention, his countenance fixed it, and his manners attached me to him for ever." In his memory Byron composed ''Thyrza'', a series of elegies.

In later years he described the affair as "a violent, though ''pure'' love and passion." This statement, however, needs to be read in the context of hardening public attitudes toward homosexuality in England, and the severe sanctions (including public hanging) against convicted or even suspected offenders. The liaison, on the other hand, may well have been 'pure' out of respect for Edleston's innocence, in contrast to the (probably) more sexually overt relations experienced at Harrow School.

Also while at Cambridge he formed lifelong friendships with men such as John Cam Hobhouse and Francis Hodgson, a Fellow at King's College, with whom he corresponded on literary and other matters until the end of his life.

Another biographer, Fiona MacCarthy, has posited that Byron's true sexual yearnings were for adolescent males.

Physical Appearance

Byron's adult height was about , his weight fluctuating between and . He was renowned for his personal beauty, which he enhanced by wearing curl-papers in his hair at night. He was athletic, being a competent boxer and horse-rider and an excellent swimmer.

Byron and other writers, such as his friend Hobhouse, described his eating habits in detail. At the time he entered Cambridge, he went on a strict diet to control his weight. He also exercised a great deal, and at that time wore a great number of clothes to cause himself to perspire. For most of his life he was a vegetarian, and often lived for days on dry biscuits and white wine. Occasionally he would eat large helpings of meat and desserts, after which he would purge himself. Although he is described by Galt and others as having a predilection for "violent" exercise, Hobhouse makes the excuse that the pain in his deformed foot made physical activity difficult, and his weight problem was the result.

Early career

While not at school or college, Byron lived with his mother at Burgage Manor in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, in some antagonism.While there, he cultivated friendships with Elizabeth Pigot and her brother, John, with whom he staged two plays for the entertainment of the community.

During this time, with the help of Elizabeth Pigot, who copied many of his rough drafts, he was encouraged to write his first volumes of poetry. ''Fugitive Pieces'' was printed by Ridge of Newark, which contained poems written when Byron was only 14. However, it was promptly recalled and burned on the advice of his friend, the Reverend Thomas Beecher, on account of its more amorous verses, particularly the poem ''To Mary''.

''Hours of Idleness'', which collected many of the previous poems, along with more recent compositions, was the culminating book. The savage, anonymous criticism this received (now known to be the work of Henry Peter Brougham) in the ''Edinburgh Review'' prompted his first major satire, ''English Bards and Scotch Reviewers'' (1809). It was put into the hands of his relation R.C. Dallas requesting him to "...get it published without his name" Dallas gives a large series of changes and alterations, as well as the reasoning for some of them. He also states that Byron had originally intended to prefix an argument to this poem, and Dallas quotes it. Although the work was published anonymously, by April, Dallas is writing that "you are already pretty generally known to be the author." The work so upset some of his critics they challenged Byron to a duel; over time, in subsequent editions, it became a mark of prestige to be the target of Byron's pen.

After his return from his travels, he again entrusted Dallas as his literary agent to publish his poem ''Childe Harold's Pilgrimage'', which Byron thought of little account. The first two cantos of ''Childe Harold's Pilgrimage'' were published in 1812, and were received with acclaim. In his own words, "I awoke one morning and found myself famous". He followed up his success with the poem's last two cantos, as well as four equally celebrated ''Oriental Tales'', ''The Giaour'', ''The Bride of Abydos'', ''The Corsair'', and ''Lara, A Tale''. About the same time, he began his intimacy with his future biographer, Thomas Moore.

Personal life

First travels to the East

Byron racked up numerous debts as a young man, due to what his mother termed a "reckless disregard for money". She lived at Newstead during this time, in fear of her son's creditors.

He had planned to spend early 1808 cruising with his cousin George Bettesworth, who was captain of the 32-gun frigate HMS ''Tartar''. Bettesworth's unfortunate death at the Battle of Alvøen in May 1808 made that impossible.

From 1809 to 1811, Byron went on the Grand Tour, then customary for a young nobleman. The Napoleonic Wars forced him to avoid most of Europe, and he instead turned to the Mediterranean. Correspondence among his circle of Cambridge friends also suggests that a key motive was the hope of homosexual experience, and other theories saying that he was worried about a possible dalliance with the married Mary Chaworth, his former love (the subject of his poem from this time, "To a Lady: On Being Asked My Reason for Quitting England in the Spring"). Attraction to the Levant was probably a motive in itself; he had read about the Ottoman and Persian lands as a child, was attracted to Islam (especially Sufi mysticism), and later wrote, “With these countries, and events connected with them, all my really poetical feelings begin and end." He travelled from England over Portugal, Spain and the Mediterranean to Albania and spent time at the court of Ali Pasha of Ioannina, and in Athens. For most of the trip, he had a travelling companion in his friend John Cam Hobhouse. Many of these letters are referred to with details in ''Recollections of the Life of Lord Byron.''

Byron began his trip in Portugal from where he wrote a letter to his friend Mr. Hodgson in which he describes his mastery of the Portuguese language, consisting mainly of swearing and insults. Byron particularly enjoyed his stay in Sintra that is described in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage as "glorious Eden". From Lisbon he travelled overland to Seville, Jerez de la Frontera, Cadiz, Gibraltar and from there by sea on to Malta and Greece.

While in Athens, Byron met Nicolò Giraud, who became quite close and taught him Italian. It was also presumed that the two had an intimate relationship involving a sexual affair. Byron sent Giraud to school at a monastery in Malta and bequeathed him a sizeable sum of seven thousand pounds sterling. The will, however, was later cancelled. In 1810 in Athens Byron wrote Maid of Athens, ere we part for a 12-year-old girl, Teresa Makri [1798–1875], and reportedly offered £ 500 for her. The offer was not accepted.

Byron made his way to Smyrna where he and Hobhouse cadged a ride to Constantinople on HMS ''Salsette''. While ''Salsette'' was anchored awaiting Ottoman permission to dock at the city, on 3 May 1810 Byron and Lieutenant Ekenhead, of ''Salsette''s marines, swam the Hellespont. Byron commemorated this feat in the second canto of ''Don Juan''.

Affairs and scandals

In 1812, Byron embarked on a well-publicised affair with the married Lady Caroline Lamb that shocked the British public. Byron eventually broke off the relationship and moved swiftly on to others (such as that with Lady Oxford), but Lamb never entirely recovered, pursuing him even after he tired of her. She was emotionally disturbed, and lost so much weight that Byron cruelly commented to her mother-in-law, his friend Lady Melbourne, that he was "haunted by a skeleton". She began to call on him at home, sometimes dressed in disguise as a page boy, at a time when such an act could ruin both of them socially. One day, during such a visit, she wrote on a book at his desk, "Remember me!" As a retort, Byron wrote a poem entitled ''Remember Thee! Remember Thee!'' which concludes with the line "Thou false to him, thou fiend to me".

As a child, Byron had seen little of his half-sister Augusta Leigh; in adulthood, he formed a close relationship with her that has been interpreted by some as incestuous, and by others as innocent. Augusta (who was married) gave birth on 15 April 1814 to her third daughter, Elizabeth Medora Leigh.

Eventually Byron began to court Lady Caroline's cousin Anne Isabella Milbanke ("Annabella"), who refused his first proposal of marriage but later accepted him. Milbanke was a highly moral woman, intelligent and mathematically gifted; she was also an heiress. They married at Seaham Hall, County Durham, on 2 January 1815. The marriage proved unhappy. He treated her poorly. They had a daughter (Augusta Ada). On 16 January 1816, Lady Byron left him, taking Ada with her. On 21 April, Byron signed the Deed of Separation. Rumours of marital violence, adultery with actresses, incest with Augusta Leigh, and sodomy were circulated, assisted by a jealous Lady Caroline. In a letter, Augusta quoted him as saying: "Even to have such a thing said is utter destruction and ruin to a man from which he can never recover."

Later years

After this break-up of his domestic life, Byron again left England, and, as it turned out, it was forever. He passed through Belgium and continued up the Rhine River. In the summer of 1816 he settled at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva, Switzerland, with his personal physician, the young, brilliant, and handsome John William Polidori. There Byron befriended the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Shelley's future wife Mary Godwin. He was also joined by Mary's stepsister, Claire Clairmont, with whom he had had an affair in London.

Kept indoors at the Villa Diodati by the "incessant rain" of "that wet, ungenial summer" over three days in June, the five turned to reading fantastical stories, including ''Fantasmagoriana'', 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, "Fragment of a Novel", 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, pausing his travels when he fell in love with Marianna Segati, in whose Venice house he was lodging, and who was soon replaced by 22-year-old Margarita Cogni; both women were married. Cogni could not read or write, and she left her husband to move into Byron's Venice house. Their fighting often caused Byron to spend the night in his gondola; when he asked her to leave the house, she threw herself into the Venetian canal.

In 1817, he journeyed to Rome. On 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 young Countess Guiccioli, who found her first love in Byron, who in turn asked her to elope with him. It was about this time that he received a visit from Thomas Moore, to whom he confided his autobiography or "life and adventures", which Moore, Hobhouse, and Byron's publisher, John Murray, burned in 1824, a month after Byron's death.

Children

Byron had a child, The Hon. Augusta Ada Byron ("Ada", later Countess of Lovelace), in 1815 with Annabella Byron, Lady Byron (''née'' Anne Isabella Milbanke, or "Annabella"), later Lady Wentworth. Ada Lovelace, notable in her own right, collaborated with Charles Babbage on the analytical engine, a predecessor to modern computers. She is recognised as the world's first programmer.

He also had an illegitimate child in 1817, Clara Allegra Byron, with Claire Clairmont, stepsister of Mary Shelley and stepdaughter of ''Political Justice'' and ''Caleb Williams'' writer, William Godwin.

Allegra is not entitled to the style "The Hon." as is usually given to the daughter of barons, since she was illegitimate. Born in Bath in 1817, Allegra lived with Byron for a few months in Venice; he refused to allow an Englishwoman caring for the girl to adopt her, and objected to her being raised in the Shelleys' household. He wished for her to be brought up Catholic and not marry an Englishman. He made arrangements for her to inherit 5,000 lira upon marriage, or when she reached the age of 21, provided she did not marry a native of Britain. However, the girl died aged five of a fever in Bagna Cavallo, Italy while Byron was in Pisa; he was deeply upset by the news. He had Allegra's body sent back to England to be buried at his old school, Harrow, because Protestants could not be buried in consecrated ground in Catholic countries. At one time he himself had wanted to be buried at Harrow. Byron was indifferent towards Allegra's mother, Claire Clairmont.

Although it cannot be proved, some attest that Augusta Leigh's child, Elizabeth Medora Leigh, was fathered by Byron.

It is thought that Lord Byron had a son by a maid he employed at Newstead named Lucy. A letter of his to John Hanson from Newstead Abbey, dated 17 January 1809, refers to the situation: "You will discharge my Cook, & Laundry Maid, the other two I shall retain to take care of the house, more especially as the youngest is pregnant (I need not tell you by whom) and I cannot have the girl on the parish." The letter may be found in many editions of Byron's letters, such as Marchand's 1982 Byron's Letters and Journals. The poem "To My Son" may be about this child; however, the dating gives difficulties; some editors attribute the poem to a date two years earlier than the letter.

Political career

Byron first took his seat in the House of Lords 13 Mar 1809, but left London on 11 Jun 1809 for the Continent. A strong advocate of social reform, he received particular praise as one of the few Parliamentary defenders of the Luddites: specifically, he was against a death penalty for Luddite "frame breakers" in Nottinghamshire, who destroyed textile machines that were putting them out of work. His first speech before the Lords was loaded with sarcastic references to the "benefits" of automation, which he saw as producing inferior material as well as putting people out of work. He said later that he "spoke very violent sentences with a sort of modest impudence", and thought he came across as "a bit theatrical". The full text of the speech, which he had previously written out, were presented to Dallas in manuscript form and he quotes it in his work. In another Parliamentary speech he expressed opposition to the established religion because it was unfair to people of other faiths. These experiences inspired Byron to write political poems such as ''Song for the Luddites'' (1816) and ''The Landlords' Interest'', Canto XIV of ''The Age of Bronze''. Examples of poems in which he attacked his political opponents include ''Wellington: The Best of the Cut-Throats'' (1819); and ''The Intellectual Eunuch Castlereagh'' (1818).

Life abroad

Reasons for his departure

Ultimately, Byron resolved to escape the censure of British society (due to allegations of sodomy and incest) by living abroad, thereby freeing himself of the need to conceal his sexual interests (MacCarthy pp. 86, 314). Byron left England in 1816 and did not return for the last eight years of his life, even to bury his daughter.

The Armenians in Venice

In 1816, Byron visited Saint Lazarus Island in Venice, where he acquainted himself with Armenian culture with the help of the abbots belonging to the Mechitarist Order. With the help of Father H. Avgerian, he learned the Armenian language, and attended many seminars about language and history. He wrote ''English Grammar and Armenian'' (''Qerakanutyun angghiakan yev hayeren'') in 1817, and ''Armenian Grammar and English'' (''Qerakanutyun hayeren yev angghiakan'') in 1819, where he included quotations from classical and modern Armenian. Byron also participated in the compilation of the ''English Armenian dictionary'' (''Barraran angghieren yev hayeren'', 1821) and wrote the preface in which he explained the relationship of the Armenians with and the oppression of the Turkish "pashas" and the Persian satraps, and their struggle of liberation. His two main translations are the ''Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians'', two chapters of Movses Khorenatsi's ''History of Armenia'' and sections of Nerses of Lambron's ''Orations''. His fascination was so great that he even considered a replacement of the Cain story of the Bible with that of the legend of Armenian patriarch Haik. He may be credited with the birth of Armenology and its propagation. His profound lyricism and ideological courage has inspired many Armenian poets, the likes of Ghevond Alishan, Smbat Shahaziz, Hovhannes Tumanyan, Ruben Vorberian and others.

In Italy and Greece

From 1821 to 1822, he finished Cantos 6–12 of ''Don Juan'' at Pisa, and in the same year he joined with Leigh Hunt and Percy Bysshe Shelley in starting a short-lived newspaper, ''The Liberal'', in the first number of which appeared ''The Vision of Judgment''. For the first time since his arrival in Italy, Byron found himself tempted to give dinner parties; his guests included the Shelleys, Edward Ellerker Williams, Thomas Medwin, John Taaffe, and Edward John Trelawney; and "never," as Shelley said, "did he display himself to more advantage than on these occasions; being at once polite and cordial, full of social hilarity and the most perfect good humour; never diverg ing into ungraceful merriment, and yet keeping up the spirit of liveliness throughout the evening." Shelley and Williams rented a house on the coast and had a schooner built. Byron decided to have his own yacht, and engaged Trelawny’s friend, Captain Daniel Roberts (Royal Navy officer), to design and construct the boat. Named the ''Bolivar'', it was later sold to Charles John Gardiner, 1st Earl of Blessington, and Marguerite, Countess of Blessington when Byron left for Greece in 1823. Byron attended the funeral of Shelley, which was orchestrated by Trelawny after Williams and Shelley drowned in a boating accident on 8 July 1822. His last Italian home was Genoa, where he was still accompanied by the Countess Guiccioli, and the Blessingtons; providing the material for Lady Blessington’s work: ''Conversations with Lord Byron'', an important text in the reception of Byron in the period immediately after his death.

Byron was living in Genoa, when in 1823, while growing bored with his life there, he accepted overtures for his support from representatives of the movement for Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire. With the assistance of his banker and Captain Roberts, Byron chartered the Brig ''Hercules'' to take him to Greece. On 16 July, Byron left Genoa arriving at Kefalonia in the Ionian Islands on 4 August. His voyage is covered in detail in ''Sailing with Byron from Genoa to Cephalonia.'' There is a mystical coincidence in Byron’s chartering the ''Hercules''. The vessel was launched only a few miles south of Seaham Hall, where in 1815 Byron married Annabella Milbanke. Between 1815 and 1823 the vessel was in service between England and Canada. Suddenly in 1823, the ship’s Captain decided to sail to Genoa and offer the ''Hercules'' for charter. After taking Byron to Greece, the ship returned to England, never again to venture into the Mediterranean. "The Hercules was age 37 when on 21 September 1852, her life ended when she went aground near Hartlepool, only 25 miles south of Sunderland, where in 1815, her keel was laid; Byron’s keel was laid nine months before his official birth date, 22 January 1788; therefore in ship-years, he was age 37, when he died in Missolonghi." Byron spent £4000 of his own money to refit the Greek fleet, then sailed for Missolonghi in western Greece, arriving on 29 December, to join Alexandros Mavrokordatos, a Greek politician with military power. During this time, Byron pursued his Greek page, Lukas Chalandritsanos, but the affections went unrequited. When the famous Danish sculptor Thorvaldsen heard about Byron's heroics in Greece, he voluntarily resculpted his earlier bust of Byron in Greek marble.

Death

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, despite his lack of military experience, but before the expedition could sail, on 15 February 1824, he fell ill, and the usual remedy of bloodletting weakened him further. He made a partial recovery, but in early April he caught a violent cold which therapeutic bleeding, insisted on by his doctors, aggravated. It is suspected this treatment, carried out with unsterilised medical instrumentation, may have caused him to develop sepsis. He developed a violent fever, and died on 19 April. His physician at the time, Dutch Julius van Millingen, was unable to prevent his death. It has been said that had Byron lived and gone on to defeat the Ottomans, he might have been declared King of Greece. However, this is unlikely.

Post mortem

Alfred, Lord Tennyson would later recall the shocked reaction in Britain when word was received of Byron's death. The Greeks mourned Lord Byron deeply, and he became a hero. The national poet of Greece, Dionysios Solomos, wrote a poem about the unexpected loss, named ''To the Death of Lord Byron''. Βύρων ("Vyron"), the Greek form of "Byron", continues in popularity as a masculine name in Greece, and a suburb of Athens is called Vyronas in his honour.

Byron's body was embalmed, but the Greeks wanted some part of their hero to stay with them. According to some sources, his heart remained at Missolonghi. According to others, it was his lungs, which were placed in an urn that was later lost when the city was sacked. His other remains were sent to England for burial in Westminster Abbey, but the Abbey refused for reason of "questionable morality". Huge crowds viewed his body as he lay in state for two days in London. He is buried at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire.

At her request, Ada Lovelace, 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 King of Greece, which is laid directly above Byron's grave. Byron's friends raised the sum of 1,000 pounds to commission a statue of the writer; Thorvaldsen offered to sculpt it for that amount. However, for ten years after the statue was completed in 1834, most British institutions turned it down, and it remained in storage. The statue was refused by the British Museum, St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and the National Gallery. Trinity College, Cambridge, finally placed the statue of Byron in its library.

In 1969, 145 years after Byron's death, a memorial to him was finally placed in Westminster Abbey. The memorial had been lobbied for since 1907; ''The New York Times'' wrote, "People are beginning to ask whether this ignoring of Byron is not a thing of which England should be ashamed ... a bust or a tablet might be put in the Poets' Corner and England be relieved of ingratitude toward one of her really great sons."

Robert Ripley had drawn a picture of Boatswain's grave with the caption "Lord Byron's dog has a magnificent tomb while Lord Byron himself has none". This came as a shock to the English, particularly schoolchildren, who, Ripley said, raised funds of their own accord to provide the poet with a suitable memorial. (Source: ''Ripley's Believe It or Not!'', 3rd Series, 1950; p. xvi.)

On a very central area of Athens, Greece, outside the National Garden, is a statue depicting Greece in the form of a woman crowning Byron. The statue was made by the French Henri-Michel Chapu and Alexandre Laguiere.

Upon his death, the barony passed to Byron's cousin George Anson Byron, a career military officer.

Poetic works

Byron wrote prolifically. In 1832 his publisher, John Murray, released the complete works in 14 duodecimo volumes, including a life by Thomas Moore. Subsequent editions were released in 17 volumes, first published a year later, in 1833.

Although Byron falls chronologically into the period most commonly associated with Romantic poetry, much of his work looks back to the satiric tradition of Alexander Pope and John Dryden.

''Don Juan''

Byron's magnum opus, ''Don Juan'', a poem spanning 17 cantos, ranks as one of the most important long poems published in England since John Milton's ''Paradise Lost''. The 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 — social, political, literary and ideological.

Byron published the first two cantos anonymously in 1819 after disputes with his regular publisher over the shocking nature of the poetry; by this time, he had been a famous poet for seven years, and when he self-published the beginning cantos, they were well received in some quarters. It was then released volume by volume through his regular publishing house. By 1822, cautious acceptance by the public had turned to outrage, and Byron's publisher refused to continue to publish the works. In Canto III of ''Don Juan'', Byron expresses his detestation for poets such as William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Byronic hero

The figure of the Byronic hero pervades much of his work, and Byron himself is considered to epitomise many of the characteristics of this literary figure. Scholars have traced the literary history of the Byronic hero from John Milton, and many authors and artists of the Romantic movement show Byron's influence during the 19th century and beyond, including Charlotte and Emily Brontë. The Byronic hero presents an idealised, but flawed character whose attributes include: great talent; great passion; a distaste for society and social institutions; a lack of respect for rank and privilege (although possessing both); being thwarted in love by social constraint or death; rebellion; exile; an unsavory secret past; arrogance; overconfidence or lack of foresight; and, ultimately, a self-destructive manner.

Parthenon marbles

Byron was a bitter opponent of Lord Elgin's removal of the Parthenon marbles from Greece, and "reacted with fury" when Elgin's agent gave him a tour of the Parthenon, during which he saw the missing friezes and metopes. He penned a poem, ''The Curse of Minerva'', to denounce Elgin's actions.

He enjoyed adventure, especially relating to the sea.

The first recorded notable example of open water swimming took place on 3 May 1810 when Lord Byron swam from Europe To Asia across the Hellespont Strait. This is often seen as the birth of the sport and pastime and to commemorate it, the event is recreated every year as an open water swimming event.

Celebrity

Byron is considered to be the first modern-style celebrity. His image as the personification of the Byronic hero fascinated the public, and his wife Annabella coined the term "Byromania" to refer to the commotion surrounding him. His self-awareness and personal promotion are seen as a beginning to what would become the modern rock star; he would instruct artists painting portraits of him not to paint him with pen or book in hand, but as a "man of action." While Byron first welcomed fame, he later turned from it by going into voluntary exile from Britain.

Fondness for animals

Byron had a great love of animals, most notably for a Newfoundland dog named Boatswain. When the animal contracted rabies, Byron nursed him, albeit unsuccessfully, without any thought or fear of becoming bitten and infected.

Although deep in debt at the time, Byron commissioned an impressive marble funerary monument for Boatswain at Newstead Abbey, larger than his own, and the only building work which he ever carried out on his estate. In his 1811 will, Byron requested that he be buried with him. The 26 verse poem, ''Epitaph to a Dog'', has become one of his best-known works, but a draft of an 1830 letter by Hobhouse shows him to be the author, and that Byron decided to use Hobhouse's lengthy epitaph instead of his own, which read: "To mark a friend's remains these stones arise/I never knew but one—and here he lies."

Byron also kept a tame bear while he was a student at Trinity, out of resentment for rules forbidding pet dogs like nhis beloved Boatswain. There being no mention of bears in their statutes, the college authorities had no legal basis for complaining: Byron even suggested that he would apply for a college fellowship for the bear.

During his lifetime, in addition to numerous dogs and horses, Byron kept a fox, four monkeys, a parrot, five cats, an eagle, a crow, a crocodile, a falcon, five peacocks, two guinea hens, an Egyptian crane, a badger, three geese, a heron and a goat with a broken leg. Except for the horses, they all resided indoors at his homes in England, Switzerland, Italy and Greece.

Lasting influence

The re-founding of the Byron Society in 1971 reflects the fascination that many people have for Byron and his work. This society has become very active, publishing an annual journal. Today 36 Byron Societies function throughout the world, and an International Conference takes place annually.

Byron exercised a marked influence on Continental literature and art, and his reputation as a poet is higher in many European countries than in Britain or America, although not as high as in his time, when he was widely thought to be the greatest poet in the world. Byron has inspired the works of Franz Liszt, Hector Berlioz, and Giuseppe Verdi.

Depictions in Fiction and Film

Byron first appeared as a thinly disguised fictional character in his ex-love Lady Caroline Lamb's book ''Glenarvon'', published in 1816.

The archetypal vampire character, notably Bram Stoker's Dracula, is based on Byron. The gothic ideal of a decadent, pale and aristocratic individual who enamors himself to whomever he meets, but who is perceived to have a dark and dangerous inner-self is a literary form derived from characteristations of Byron. The image of a vampire portrayed as an aristocrat was created by John Polidori, in "The Vampyre", during the summer of 1816 which he spent in the company of Byron. The titled Count Dracula is a reprise of this character.

Byron is the main character of the film ''Byron'' by the Greek film maker Nikos Koundouros.

Byron's spirit is one of the title characters of the ''Ghosts of Albion'' books by Amber Benson and Christopher Golden. John Crowley's book ''Lord Byron's Novel: The Evening Land'' (2005) involves the rediscovery of a lost manuscript by Lord Byron, as does Frederic Prokosch's ''The Missolonghi Manuscript'' (1968).

Byron appears as a character in Tim Powers's time travel/alternative history novels ''The Stress of Her Regard'' (1989) and ''The Anubis Gates'' (1983), Walter Jon Williams's fantasy novella ''Wall, Stone Craft'' (1994), and also in Susanna Clarke's alternative history ''Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell'' (2004).

Byron appears as an immortal, still living in modern times, in the television show ''Highlander: The Series'' in the fifth season episode ''The Modern Prometheus'', living as a decadent rock star.

Tom Holland, in his 1995 novel ''The Vampyre: Being the True Pilgrimage of George Gordon, Sixth Lord Byron'', romantically describes how Lord Byron became a vampire during his first visit to Greece — a fictional transformation that explains much of his subsequent behaviour towards family and friends, and finds support in quotes from Byron poems and the diaries of John Cam Hobhouse. It is written as though Byron is retelling part of his life to his great great-great-great-granddaughter. He describes travelling in Greece, Italy, Switzerland, meeting Percy Bysshe Shelley, Shelley's death, and many other events in life around that time. The Byron as vampire character returns in the 1996 sequel ''Supping with Panthers''.

Byron and Percy and Mary Shelley are portrayed in Roger Corman's final film ''Frankenstein Unbound'', where the time traveller Dr. Buchanan (played by John Hurt) meets them as well as Victor von Frankenstein (played by Raúl Juliá).

''The Black Drama'' by Manly Wade Wellman, originally published in Weird Tales, 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.

Tom Stoppard's play ''Arcadia'' revolves around a modern researcher's attempts to find out what made Byron leave the country, while Howard Brenton's play ''Bloody Poetry'' features Byron, in addition to Polidori, the Shelleys and Claire Clairmont.

Television portrayals include a major 2003 BBC drama on Byron's life, and minor appearances in ''Highlander: The Series'' (as well as the Shelleys), ''Blackadder the Third'', episode 60 (Darkling) of ''Star Trek: Voyager'', and was also parodied in the animated sketch series, Monkey Dust.

He makes an appearance in the alternative history novel ''The Difference Engine'' by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. In a Britain powered by the massive, steam-driven, mechanical computers invented by Charles Babbage, he is leader of the ''Industrial Radical Party'', eventually becoming Prime Minister.

The events featuring the Shelleys' and Byron's relationship at the house beside Lake Geneva in 1816 have been fictionalised in film at least three times.

# A 1986 British production, ''Gothic'', directed by Ken Russell, and starring Gabriel Byrne as Byron. # A 1988 Spanish production, ''Rowing with the wind'' aka (''Remando al viento''), starring Hugh Grant as Byron. # A 1988 U.S.A. production ''Haunted Summer''. Adapted by Lewis John Carlino from the speculative novel by Anne Edwards, starring Philip Anglim as Lord Byron.

The brief prologue to ''Bride of Frankenstein'' includes Gavin Gordon as Byron, begging Mary Shelley to tell the rest of her Frankenstein story.

Novelist Benjamin Markovits produced a trilogy about the life of Byron. ''Imposture'' (2007) looked at the poet from the point of view of his friend and doctor, John Polidori. ''A Quiet Adjustment'' (2008), is an account of Byron's marriage that is more sympathetic to his wife, Annabella. ''Childish Loves''(2011) is a reimagining of Byron's lost memoirs, dealing with questions about his childhood and sexual awakening.

Byron is portrayed as an immortal in the book, ''Divine Fire'', by Melanie Jackson.

In the comic thriller, ''Edward Trencom's Nose'' by Giles Milton, several of Edward's ancestors are poisoned, along with Byron.

In ''The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy'' episode "Ecto Cooler" (2005), the episode opens with a quote from ''Don Juan''. Byron's ghost appears to instruct Billy on how to be cool.

In the novel ''The History of Lucy's Love Life in Ten and a Half Chapters'', Lucy Lyons uses a time machine to visit 1813 and meet her idol, Byron.

Byron is depicted in Tennessee William's play ''Camino Real''.

Byron's life is the subject of the 2003 made for television movie ''Byron'' starring Jonny Lee Miller.

Byron is depicted as the villain/antagonist in the novel ''Jane Bites Back '' written by Michael Thomas Ford, published by Ballantine Books, 2010. A novel based on the premise that Jane Austen (and Lord Byron) are Vampires living in the modern day literary world.

The play ''A Year Without A Summer'' by Brad C. Hodson is about Byron, Polidori, the Shelleys, and Claire Clairmont and the famous summer of 1816 at the Villa Diodati. As opposed to other works dealing with the same period, the play is more a biopic dealing with Byron's divorce and exile from England, than with the Shelleys' lives.

Lawrence Durrell wrote a poem called ''Byron'' as a lyrical soliloquy; it was first published in 1944.

Susanna Roxman's ''Allegra'' in her 1996 collection Broken Angels (Dionysia Press, Edinburgh) is a poem about Byron's daughter by Claire Clairmont. In this text, Byron is referred to as "Papa".

Dan Chapman's 2010 vampire novella ''The Postmodern Malady of Dr. Peter Hudson'' begins at the time of Lord Byron's death and uses biographical information about him in the construction of its title character. It also directly quotes some of his work.

Stephanie Barron's series of ''Jane Austen Mysteries'' has Lord Byron a suspect of murder in the 2010 book, ''Jane and the Madness of Lord Byron.''

He appears in a parallel story line in the novel ''The Fire'' by Katherine Neville.

Musical settings of, or music inspired by, poems by Byron

1820 – William Crathern: ''My Boat is On the Shore'' (1820), a setting for voice and piano of words from the poem ''To Thomas More'' written by Byron in 1817

c. 1820–1860 – Carl Loewe: 24 songs

1833 – Gaetano Donizetti: ''Parisina'', opera

1834 – Hector Berlioz: ''Harold en Italie'', symphony in four movements for viola and orchestra

1835 – Gaetano Donizetti: ''Marino Faliero'', opera

1844 – Hector Berlioz: ''Le Corsaire'' overture (possibly also inspired by James Fenimore Cooper's ''Red Rover'' as the original title is ''Le Corsaire Rouge'')

1844 – Giuseppe Verdi: ''I due Foscari'', opera in three acts

1848 – Giuseppe Verdi: ''Il corsaro'', opera in three acts

1849 – Robert Schumann: Overture and incidental music to ''Manfred''

1849–54 – Franz Liszt: ''Tasso, Lamento e trionfo'', symphonic poem

1885 – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Manfred Symphony in B minor, Op. 58

1896 – Hugo Wolf: ''Vier Gedichte nach Heine, Shakespeare und Lord Byron'' for voice and piano: 3. Sonne der Schlummerlosen 4. Keine gleicht von allen Schönen

1916 – Pietro Mascagni: ''Parisina'', opera in four acts

1934 – Germaine Tailleferre: ''Two Poems of Lord Byron'' (1. Sometimes in moments... 2. 'Tis Done I heard it in my dreams... for Voice and Piano (Tailleferre's only setting of English language texts)

1942 – Arnold Schoenberg: ''Ode to Napoleon'' for reciter, string quartet and piano

mid 1970s: Arion Quinn: ''She Walks in Beauty''

1984 – David Bowie: Music video for ''Blue Jean'' and short promotional video for Blue Jean, ''Jazzin' for Blue Jean'' features him playing an rock star named Screaming Lord Byron (''cf.'' Screaming Lord Sutch). His attire for the rock star mimics that of Lord Byron's in the portrait by Thomas Phillips.

1997 – Solefald: ''When the Moon is on the Wave''

2002 – Ariella Uliano: ''So We'll Go No More A'Roving''

2002 – Warren Zevon: ''Lord Byron's Luggage''

2004 – Leonard Cohen: ''No More A-Roving''

2005 – Cockfighter (band): ''Destruction''

2006 – Kris Delmhorst: ''We'll Go No More A-Roving''

2006 – Cradle Of Filth: ''The Byronic Man'' featuring HIM's Ville Valo

2008 – ALPHA 60: ''The rock, the vulture, and the chain''

2008 – Schiller (band) has a song called "Nacht" with Ben Becker on its album, Sehnsucht (Schiller album), which has video on Youtube. The lyrics are a shortened version of a poem in German called Die Seele that is attributed to Lord Byron. It appears to be a translation of the Byron poem, "When coldness wraps this suffering clay" from the collection, Hebrew Melodies. The Identity of the translator/author of Die Seele is unknown although the text may be from "Lord Byrons Werke In sechs Bänden" translated by Otto Gildemeister, 3rd Volume, Fifth Edition, Berlin 1903 (pages 134–135).

2011 – Agustí Charles: ''Lord Byron. Un estiu sense estiu. Opera en dos actes (Lord Byron. A summer without a summer. Opera in two actes)''. Libretto in Catalan by Marc Rosich, world premiere at Staatstheater Darmstadt, March 2011.

Perth rock band Eleventh He Reaches London are named in reference to the eleventh canto of Don Juan, in which Don Juan arrives in London. Their debut album, The Good Fight for Harmony also featured a track entitled "What Would Don Juan Do?"

Bibliography

Major works

''Hours of Idleness'' (1807)

''English Bards and Scotch Reviewers'' (1809)

''Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Cantos I & II'' (1812)

''The Giaour'' (1813)

''The Bride of Abydos'' (1813)

''The Corsair'' (1814)

''Lara, A Tale'' (1814)

''Hebrew Melodies'' (1815)

''The Siege of Corinth'' (1816) (text on Wikisource)

''Parisina'' (1816)

''The Prisoner of Chillon'' (1816) (text on Wikisource)

''The Dream'' (1816)

''Prometheus'' (1816)

''Darkness'' (1816)

''Manfred'' (1817) (text on Wikisource)

''The Lament of Tasso'' (1817)

''Beppo'' (1818)

''Childe Harold's Pilgrimage'' (1818) (text on Wikisource)

''Don Juan'' (1819–1824; incomplete on Byron's death in 1824)

''Mazeppa'' (1819)

''The Prophecy of Dante'' (1819)

''Marino Faliero'' (1820)

''Sardanapalus'' (1821)

''The Two Foscari'' (1821)

''Cain'' (1821)

''The Vision of Judgment'' (1821)

''Heaven and Earth (drama)|Heaven and Earth'' (1821)

''Werner'' (1822)

''The Age of Bronze'' (1823)

''The Island'' (1823)

''The Deformed Transformed'' (1824)

Major poems

''The First Kiss of Love'' (1806) (text on Wikisource)

''Thoughts Suggested by a College Examination'' (1806) (text on Wikisource)

''To a Beautiful Quaker'' (1807) (text on Wikisource)

''The Cornelian'' (1807) (text on Wikisource)

''Lines Addressed to a Young Lady'' (1807) (text on Wikisource)

''Lachin y Garr'' (1807) (text on Wikisource)

''Epitaph to a Dog'' (1808) (text on Wikisource)

''Maid of Athens, ere we part'' (1810) (text on Wikisource)

''She Walks in Beauty'' (1814) (text on Wikisource)

''My Soul is Dark'' (1815) (text on Wikisource)

''When We Two Parted'' (1817) (text on Wikisource)

''Love's Last Adieu''

''So, we'll go no more a roving'' (1830) (text on Wikisource)

See also

Asteroid 3306 Byron

Bridge of Sighs, a Venice landmark Byron denominated

Timeline of Lord Byron

David Crane (historian)

Mikhail Lermontov (often compared as the Russian Byron)

References

:

Further reading

Blackstone, Byron: 'Byron and Islam: the triple Eros' (Journal of European Studies vol. 4 no. 4, Dec. 1974, 325–63)

Crompton, Louis. ''Byron and Greek Love: Homophobia in 19th-Century England''. Faber and Faber, 1985.

Garrett, Martin: ''George Gordon, Lord Byron''. (British Library Writers' Lives). London: British Library, 2000. ISBN 0-7123-4657-0.

Garrett, Martin. 'Palgrave Literary Dictionary of Byron'. Palgrave, 2010. ISBN 978-0-230-00897-7

Guiccioli, Teresa, contessa di, ''Lord Byron's Life in Italy'', transl. Michael Rees, ed. Peter Cochran, 2005, ISBN 0-87413-716-0.

Grosskurth, Phyllis: ''Byron: The Flawed Angel''. Hodder, 1997. ISBN 0-340-60753-X

MacCarthy, Fiona: ''Byron: Life and Legend''. John Murray, 2002. ISBN 0-7195-5621-X.

Marchand, Leslie A., editor, Edition of Byron's Letters, Harvard University Press:

* ''Byron's Letters and Journals, Volume I, 'In my hot youth', 1798–1810'', (1973)

* ''Byron's Letters and Journals, Volume II, 'Famous in my time', 1810–1812'', (1973)

* ''Byron's Letters and Journals, Volume III, 'Alas! the love of women', 1813–1814'', (1974)

* ''Byron's Letters and Journals, Volume IV, 'Wedlock's the devil', 1814–1815'', (1975)

* ''Byron's Letters and Journals, Volume V, 'So late into the night', 1816–1817'', (1976)

* ''Byron's Letters and Journals, Volume VI, 'The flesh is frail', 1818–1819'', (1976)

* ''Byron's Letters and Journals, Volume VII, 'Between two worlds', 1820'', (1978)

* ''Byron's Letters and Journals, Volume VIII, 'Born for opposition', 1821'', (1978)

* ''Byron's Letters and Journals, Volume IX, 'In the wind's eye', 1821–1822'', (1978)

* ''Byron's Letters and Journals, Volume X, 'A heart for every fate', 1822–1823'', (1980)

* ''Byron's Letters and Journals, Volume XI, 'For freedom's battle', 1823–1824'', (1981)

* ''Byron's Letters and Journals, Volume XII, 'The trouble of an index', index'', (1982)

* ''Lord Byron: Selected Letters and Journals'', (1982)

McGann, Jerome: ''Byron and Romanticism''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. ISBN 0-521-00722-4.

Oueijan, Naji B. ''A Compendium of Eastern Elements in Byron's Oriental Tales''. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 1999.

Prell, Donald: ''Sailing with Byron from Genoa to Cephalonia''. Strand Publishing, 2009, ISBN 0-9741975-5-6.

Prell, Donald: ''Lord Byron Coincidence or Destiny''. Strand Publishing, 2009, http://www.strand-publishing.com/page6/page6.html

Rosen, Fred: ''Bentham, Byron and Greece''. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1992. ISBN 0-19-820078-1.

St Clair, William, ''That Greece Might Still Be Free: The Philhellenes in the War of Independence'', (Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, 2008)

Open Book Publishers

Thiollet, Jean-Pierre: ''Carré d'Art: Barbey d'Aurevilly, lord Byron, Salvador Dali, Jean-Edern Hallier'', Anagramme éditions, 2008. ISBN 978-2-35035-189-6

External links

Works

Works by Byron in audio format from LibriVox

Poems by Lord Byron at PoetryFoundation.org

Byron's 1816–1824 letters to Murray and Moore about Armenian studies and translations

Creative Commons animated adaption of ''When We Two Parted''

The Byron Society

Poems by Lord Byron at PoetryFoundation.org

The International Byron Society

Byron's Grave

George Gordon, Lord Byron at Find-A-Grave

Hucknall Parish Church, Byron's final resting place

Statue of Byron at Trinity College, Cambridge

The Byron Chronology

The Life and Work of Lord Byron

Lord George Gordon Byron—Biography & Works

Centre for Byron Studies, University of Nottingham

Byron page on The Literature Network

Byron Collection at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin

Byron Materials at Arkansas State

Pictures of Byron's Walk, Seaham, County Durham

Official page of the Byron & Butler family

Greece Honors British Poet As Independence War Hero, Sarasota Herald-Tribune – 21 Apr 1974

Category:1788 births Category:1824 deaths Category:People educated at Aberdeen Grammar School Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Category:Anglo-Scots Category:Barons in the Peerage of England Category:English poets Category:English people of Scottish descent Category:British people of Cornish descent Category:LGBT writers from the United Kingdom Category:Old Harrovians Category:People from London Category:Philhellenes Category:Regency era Category:Romantic poets Category:Byron family Category:Fellows of the Royal Society Category:19th-century theatre

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Coordinates	21°57′″N95°16′″N
name	The Mighty Sparrow
background	solo_singer
birth name	Slinger Francisco
born	July 09, 1935
origin	Grenada
instrument	Vocals
genre	Calypso, Soca
occupation	Musician, producer, Song-writer
years active	1949–present
associated acts	Byron Lee and the Dragonaires
website	www.mightysparrow.com
notable instruments	}}

Mighty Sparrow or Birdie (born Slinger Francisco, July 9, 1935, in Grand Roy, Grenada, West Indies) is a calypso singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Known as the "Calypso King of the World," he is one of the most well-known and successful calypsonians. He has won Trinidad's Carnival Road March competition eight times and has been named "Calypso Monarch" eleven times.

Early life

Sparrow was born in Grenada on July 9, 1935, but moved to Trinidad when he was one year old. His birth name is Slinger Francisco. He grew up in Port of Spain.

He was first exposed to music through the choir in Catholic school, and became interested in calypso at 14 when he joined a steel band composed of neighborhood boys. He received his performing name "The Mighty Sparrow" during his early career:

Calypso Monarch

In 1956, Sparrow won Trinidad's Carnival Road March and Calypso Monarch competitions with his most famous song, "Jean and Dinah". His prize for the latter was $40. In protest of the small sum, he wrote the song "Carnival Boycott" and attempted to organize other singers to boycott the competition. About half of the singers followed. Sparrow claims credit for succeeding improvements in the conditions of calypso and steelband musicians in Trinidad, as well as the formation of the Carnival Development Committee, a musicians' assistance organization. Sparrow refused to participate in the competition for the next three years, but he continued to perform unofficially, even winning another Road March title in 1958 with "P.A.Y.E."

Taking calypso abroad

Calypso music enjoyed a brief period of popularity in other parts in the world during the 1950s. Trinidadian expatriate Lord Kitchener had helped popularize calypso in England, and Sparrow also found some success there. In the United States, interest in calypso was sparked largely by Harry Belafonte's 1956 album ''Calypso'', the first LP to sell over one million copies. In January 1958, Sparrow, along with longtime rival Lord Melody, travelled to New York City seeking access to the American music audience. Sparrow had already been recording with Balisier and Cook Records, and with Belafonte's help he also began to record for RCA Victor. He did not achieve the success he had hoped for; he said in a 2001 interview, "When nothing happened for me, I went back to England and continued on with my career."

In 1960 Sparrow returned to the Calypso Monarch competition, winning his second Kingship and third Road March title with "Ten to One Is Murder" (an autobiographical song about an incident in which Sparrow allegedly shot a man) and "Mae Mae." He also began recording for his own label, National Recording. He continued to enjoy great popularity in Trinidad throughout the 1960s.

Soca

As soca began to supplant calypso in popularity in Trinidad during the late 1970s and early 1980s, Sparrow embraced the hybrid of Calypso and Cadence-lypso with the Local (Chutney) music. In 1984 he won his eighth Road March title with the soca-influenced "Doh Back Back." Also around this time, he began to spend at least half the year in New York City, finding an apartment in the West Indian neighborhoods in Jamaica, Queens. Sparrow continues to write, perform, and tour into the 21st century; in a 2001 interview he mentioned that he had been singing and performing a "Gospel-lypso" hybrid. In 2008, he released a song supporting Barack Obama's presidential campaign, "Barack the Magnificent". He also did a remake of his "Congo Man" song with fellow Trinidadian Machel Montano on the ''Flame on'' album.

Lyrics

Sparrow's lyrics are famous for being witty, ironic, and ribald. He sings flirtatiously of the attractions of Hispanic women in "Magarita," and of East Indian women in "Marajhin." He tells some outrageously frank tales of sexuality in "Mae Mae," "The Lizard" and "Big Bamboo." And there is humorous commentary on West Indian culture to be found in "Obeah Wedding" and "Witch Doctor." Robert Christgau called his controversial song "Congo Man" "a wildly perverse piss-take on African roots, interracial revenge, interracial sex, male-female relations, and cannibalism." The 1965 song was criticized for its attitudes toward women and Africans, and banned from radio airplay until 1989.

Sparrow also frequently comments on social and political issues in his songs. During his early career he was a supporter of Eric Williams and his People's National Movement (PNM), which formed in 1955 and led Trinidad and Tobago to independence in 1962; songs such as "Leave The Damn Doctor Alone" and "William the Conqueror" mentioned Williams directly, while others such as "Federation" (blaming Jamaica for the breakup of the short-lived West Indies Federation), "Our Model Nation" (celebrating Trinidadian independence), and "PAYE" (supporting the PNM's pay-as-you-earn tax system) echoed PNM positions. Sparrow did express discontent in 1957's "No, Doctor, No," but it was comparatively mild, and aimed at holding PNM politicians to their promises rather than replacing them. Sparrow cleverly combined political criticism with sexual innuendo in his mid-1960s song "BG Plantain", which decried the ban levied by PM Williams on imported plantain from British Guiana (BG); plantain, a large banana-shaped vegetable, is a staple of West Indian cuisine, and Sparrow praised the BG plantain as larger, sweeter, and superior to the home-grown Trinidadian variety.

Sparrow's mid-1960s hit "Sir Garfield Sobers," celebrating the great Barbadian all-rounder cricketer, who starred for West Indies teams, anticipated by a decade the knighthood which Garfield Sobers would actually receive in 1975. Sobers is generally regarded as the greatest all-rounder in cricket history. This song's first verse:

:"Who's the greatest cricketer on Earth or Mars? :Anyone can tell you, it's the great Sir Garfield Sobers! :This handsome Barbadian lad really knows his work. :Batting or bowling, he's the cricket King, no joke! :Three cheers for Captain Sobers!"

In more recent times Sparrow continues to incorporate social issues into his music. "Crown Heights Justice" is a plea for peace and understanding in the wake of the 1991 Crown Heights Riot in Sparrow's adopted home of New York City. The themes of peace, tolerance, and concern for the poor show up repeatedly in songs such as "Human Rights" (1981), "Capitalism Gone Mad" (1983), and "This Is Madness" (1995).

Sparrow still tours.

Selected discography

''Calypso Kings and Pink Gin'' (Cook Records, 1957)

''King Sparrow's Calypso Carnival'' (Cook Records)

''Calypso Exposed'' (Cook, 1961)

''Sparrow in Hi-Fi'' (Cook, 1963)

''Hot and Sweet'' (Produced by Van Dyke Parks) - Warner Bros, 1974

''16 Carnival Hits'' (with Lord Kitchener) - 1992

''Calypso Awakening from the Emory Cook Collection'' (Smithsonian Folkways, 2000)

''Mighty Sparrow Dance Party Gold 2000''

''First Flight: Early Calypsos from the Emory Cook Collection'' (Smithsonian Folkways, 2005)

''Sparrow Hits on Karaoke'' - Islandstars Karaoke, 2005

Major Awards and Honors

+ Carnival Road March titles	Year !! Song
1956	Jean and Dinah
1958	P.A.Y.E.
1960	Mae Mae
1961	Royal Jail
1966	Melda (Obeah Wedding)
1969	Sa Sa Yea
1972	Drunk And Disorderly
1984	Doh Back Back

+ Calypso Monarch victories	Year !! Tune #1 !! Tune #2
1956	Jean and Dinah	none
1960	Ten to One Is Murder
1962	Sparrow Come Back Home
1963	Dan Is the Man (In the Van)
1972	Drunk and Disorderly
1973	School Days
1974	We Pass That Stage
1992	Both of Them

Song sample

References

External links

MightySparrow.com

Sparrow Discography at Smithsonian Folkways

[ Biography at allmusic.com]

Muriel's Treasure for recordings and video

Category:1935 births Category:Living people Category:Trinidad and Tobago musicians Category:Calypsonians Category:Soca musicians Category:Grenadian musicians Category:Grenadian emigrants to Trinidad and Tobago Category:Calypso

de:Mighty Sparrow nl:Mighty Sparrow

Coordinates	21°57′″N95°16′″N
name	Admiral Bailey
background	solo_singer
birth name	Glendon Bailey
origin	Kingston, Jamaica
instrument	vocals
genre	Reggae
notable instruments	}}

Admiral Bailey (born Glendon Bailey, Kingston, Jamaica) is a Jamaican dancehall deejay who enjoyed his greatest success between the mid-1980s and the early 1990s. He has been described as "the hottest dancehall star of the late 1980s".

Career

Bailey had worked on U-Roy's ''King Sturgav Hi-Fi'' sound system and was taken to King Jammy's studio in Waterhouse by Josey Wales. He started a string of hits with a duet with Chaka Demus, "One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer", which was followed by "Politician" (based on Larry Marshall's 1969 hit "Throw Me Corn"), "Chatty Chatty Mouth", "Ballot Box' (with Josey Wales) and, in 1987, the slack "Punaany" (with a lyric that included "Gimme Punaany, Want punaany, Any punaany is the same punaany"), which was initially banned from radio play until it was re-recorded with a less offensive lyric, retitled "Healthy Body". His debut album, ''Kill Them With It'', was released in 1987 and he went on to record for producers such as Papa Biggy and Donovan Germain. He recorded further for Penthouse Records ("Help") in 1990 and Bobby Digital ("Ah Nuh Sin") in 1991. In 1993, he began working with Jammy again. In the 1990s he became known as a "clean" deejay, eschewing the slackness of many of his contemporaries. He recorded with Byron Lee on some of the latter's big soca hits, and even starred in television commercials for banks.

Discography

''Kill Them With It'' (1987) Jammys/Live & Love

''Dancehall Showcase Vol. 2: M.C.'s Clash'' (1987) Mango (with Tonto Irie)

''Undisputed'' (1988) Dynamic

''Ram Up You Party'' (1988) Powerhouse

''Science Again'' (1989) Rohit

''Born Champion'' (1991) Jammys/Live & Love

''Original'' (1991) VP

''Mi Big Up'' (1992) VP

''Undisputed Champion'' (1993) Rhino

''Best Of Reggae: Live'' (2006) Super Power

References

Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:Dancehall musicians Category:Jamaican reggae musicians Category:People from Kingston, Jamaica

pt:Admiral Bailey