The life was simply off the rails, but looks poetic to people who grew up on 70s rock gods. When you turn to the poetry, it’s a surprise. And massively enjoyable.
J Bryant
2 months ago
I was struck by the jaunty, devil-may-care tone of this essay, as if written by a man who’d just dodged a bullet. Then I noticed the author is literary editor at The Spectator.
He always gets such a hard time in the comments at The Spectator that I feel sorry for him (it is when he writes about politics – generally posh lefty stuff – not when he writes about books). Perhaps that is why he is so breezy here – he doesn’t have to trawl through so many mean comments.
My comment was my rather clumsy allusion to the likely failure of the Saudis to buy The Telegraph and The Spectator (apparently that acquisition would instantly kill independent journalism).
Any man who can write this can do little wrong in my eyes.”-
“But the poor Dog, in life the firmest friend,
The first to welcome, foremost to defend,
Whose honest heart is still his Masters own,
Who labours, fights, lives, breathes for him alone”*
(*A snippet from Byron’s ‘Epitaph for a Dog’, in this case Boatswain, a Landseer/Newfoundland.)
Very nice. Your fondness for your dogs and reciprocal loyalty to them is to your credit.
Here is a rather less dog-fond side of young Byron, versifying his departure from England at age 21:
And now I’m in the world alone,
Upon the wide, wide sea;
But why should I for others groan,
When none will sigh for me?
Perchance my dog will whine in vain
Till fed by stranger hands;
But long ere I come back again
He’d tear me where he stands.
With thee, my bark, I’ll swiftly go
Athwart the foaming brine;
Nor care what land thou bear’st me to,
So not again to mine.
Welcome, welcome, ye dark blue waves!
And when you fail my sight,
Welcome, ye deserts, and ye caves!
My Native Land—Good Night!
—Childe Harold (the ballad-meter song between numbers 13 and 14)
Aren’t today’s Byronic heroes of the kind seen in Saltburn? Harry Styles with all his queerbating is Byronic. Russell Brand who always played up the camp cockney character (and was until recently a woke darling) is Byronic.
A kind of feminine-tamed masculinity is the essence of Byron and Byronicism. A man who can has that innate masculine drive our evolutionary vestiges crave but with a soft sociability on top that can appreciate a wildflower meadow and will respect boundaries.
Well-expressed and true enough. The thin veneer of refinement and restraint that protects men and their potential targets–not only in an “amorous” sense– tends to get shredded in all-male environments like (historically) jail and the military, or in places where disrespect for femininity runs rampant.
Feminine-tamed need not mean effete. Hope all blokes from the butchest to the meekest can still appreciate wildflowers and respect boundaries
But look at the amount of knowledge that Byron deploys in his poetry. He was well read, even bookish (he famously read at breakfast). And the rest of course. Russel Brand? Good god!
I used to listen to Brand’s act sometimes, both in recorded public performances and on his podcast. Would say he’s at least unevenly well-read, with a certainly literary flair. Intellect isn’t his key deficit.
Was reading at breakfast rare in the early-19th century?
I sensed that was your take. I found him witty and often funny–past tense for me, at least for the foreseeable future–though I’d agree he’s not particularly intelligent, nor erudite. And he’s always had the impish rogue side too, even before he became a half-pious crusader or had his “predatory escapades” exposed. A bit deeper than Johnny Depp though, yes? An admittedly low bar.
Byron was not a strong student as a youth, nor considered learned in his day (at least according to a Life of Byron by J.W. Lake, prefixed to an 1837 volume of his poems I was re-reading earlier today). Neither was Shakespeare.
Even so, I don’t think UnHerd Reader #unknown or I asserted any connection between Russell Brand and rare genius, or to the poetic gift of Byron.
Are there present-day “celebrities” you do find notably brilliant and funny?
Are there present-day “celebrities” you do find notably brilliant and funny?
Leaving aside those who are unintentionally funny. Ricky Gervais, Bill Burr, Chris Rock. Curb your enthusiasm is good. Dave Chapelle. Almost forgot: Tim Minchin – talented, dripping intelligence, and seems to be a really nice guy. Amanda Palmer and Regina Spector, very talented song writers.
Lots more I’m sure, but they tend to be a bit off the radar.
It’s always worked for me. Despite constant penury, striking rather than handsome features, and being a shortarse, I’ve found that giving the impression you can hold your own in a bar fight AND knock out a sonnet means you never sleep alone unless you want to.
Russell Brand – respect boundaries?
Have you been away for a while?
Aphrodite Rises
2 months ago
Ann Millbank (Byron’s wife) was so horrified by Byron’s behaviour, she had their daughter Ada (later Lovelace) tutored in maths and science in the hope she would grow up to be nothing like her father. Ada never attended school or university but nonetheless collaborated with Charles Babbage and other leading mathematicians of the time. The first computer program is attributed to her. Ada possessed the creativity of her father but applied it differently (mostly). She recognised the power and potential of Babbage’s analytical engine: the precursor to the computer.
David Morley
2 months ago
Sex aside, it’s odder still that what the word Byronic never seems to connote — which is a bit odd given Byron is above all a comic poet — is humour.
Don Juan isn’t just funny, parts of it are laugh out loud hysterical. And the amazing thing is the sheer amount he wrote – stanza after stanza. Our own Byronic heroes might manage a few weak pop songs, but that’s your lot.
If reading him is a bit daunting, get an audio book.
In full agreement here. Except to insist that next to no one (over)uses “Byronic” to suggest a strong connection to Byron’s poetic gift or body of work. Granted, his undeservedly low present-day readership means that few know much about that gift.
Didn’t you find getting through Don Juan a bit daunting? I skimmed part of the middle but plan to make amends. An audiobook is actually an excellent suggestion for rhyming verse, and for those of us with diminished eyesight. Alternately, read the best stanzas aloud to yourself, pets, neighbors, etc.
I went for the audiobook, and listened to it several times through. For me, way better than trying to read it. And the drama comes across far better. Goethe rated Byron as a superior poet to himself! Wrong, I would say, but still should not have fallen into neglect the way he has.
Some interesting stuff on slavery in the Ottoman Empire tucked in there too. If I remember correctly Byron describes the lines of black and white slaves in the slave market as looking like a backgammon board. A big surprise for anyone who assumes slavery was only of black people and only by Europeans.
I agree about the humour; I laughed out loud at some of it too. It is long of course, but I found you could read it at quite a good lick without losing the sense of what he was saying; it even helped by stopping you getting bogged down and losing sight of the overall meaning.
The piece where Don Alphonso breaks in on Donna Julia looking for her lover is a piece of extended comic genius. It’s hard not to imagine Byron laughing as he wrote it.
David Morley
2 months ago
In general, Byronic means: like Byron, minus the humour, minus the melancholy, minus the world weariness, minus the erudition and minus the talent. But generally with better feet.
On the academic left anything which moves things away from what is considered “normal” is good. Queering is that applied to the sex, gender space. So if you imagine a white, cis, heterosexual, middle class western male, with ordinary sexual habits – the further you get from that the better.
Its not so stupid if it means just opening our minds to things we are not familiar with, but it has become obsessive, taking on a moral and aesthetic tone – as in “it’s just art by dead, cis, heterosexual white men” or “pale, male and stale” and therefore both bad (aesthetically and morally” and suspect.
I’m surprised the author didn’t bring up Andrew Tate, also on the lam in Eastern Europe.
Jeremy Bray
2 months ago
The present Lord Byron, the 13th Lord Byron, used as a maritime solicitor to receive a favourable reception from Greek ship-owning clients as a result of the continuing high regard the Greeks have for his ancestor despite not being particularly “Byronic” himself.
Byron’s poetry was his life, not his poetry.
Seriously, try the poetry.
Little read and underrated, especially the unfunny parts.
The life was simply off the rails, but looks poetic to people who grew up on 70s rock gods. When you turn to the poetry, it’s a surprise. And massively enjoyable.
I was struck by the jaunty, devil-may-care tone of this essay, as if written by a man who’d just dodged a bullet. Then I noticed the author is literary editor at The Spectator.
He always gets such a hard time in the comments at The Spectator that I feel sorry for him (it is when he writes about politics – generally posh lefty stuff – not when he writes about books). Perhaps that is why he is so breezy here – he doesn’t have to trawl through so many mean comments.
My comment was my rather clumsy allusion to the likely failure of the Saudis to buy The Telegraph and The Spectator (apparently that acquisition would instantly kill independent journalism).
Emiratis
Entertaining! I liked the “(checks notes)” aside.
Any man who can write this can do little wrong in my eyes.”-
“But the poor Dog, in life the firmest friend,
The first to welcome, foremost to defend,
Whose honest heart is still his Masters own,
Who labours, fights, lives, breathes for him alone”*
(*A snippet from Byron’s ‘Epitaph for a Dog’, in this case Boatswain, a Landseer/Newfoundland.)
Very nice. Your fondness for your dogs and reciprocal loyalty to them is to your credit.
Here is a rather less dog-fond side of young Byron, versifying his departure from England at age 21:
And now I’m in the world alone,
Upon the wide, wide sea;
But why should I for others groan,
When none will sigh for me?
Perchance my dog will whine in vain
Till fed by stranger hands;
But long ere I come back again
He’d tear me where he stands.
With thee, my bark, I’ll swiftly go
Athwart the foaming brine;
Nor care what land thou bear’st me to,
So not again to mine.
Welcome, welcome, ye dark blue waves!
And when you fail my sight,
Welcome, ye deserts, and ye caves!
My Native Land—Good Night!
—Childe Harold (the ballad-meter song between numbers 13 and 14)
Seek not the counsel of one who detests dogs and seek not the counsel of one who worships them.
Diogenes of Sinope thought differently.
Diogenes is still waiting.
Aren’t today’s Byronic heroes of the kind seen in Saltburn? Harry Styles with all his queerbating is Byronic. Russell Brand who always played up the camp cockney character (and was until recently a woke darling) is Byronic.
A kind of feminine-tamed masculinity is the essence of Byron and Byronicism. A man who can has that innate masculine drive our evolutionary vestiges crave but with a soft sociability on top that can appreciate a wildflower meadow and will respect boundaries.
Well-expressed and true enough. The thin veneer of refinement and restraint that protects men and their potential targets–not only in an “amorous” sense– tends to get shredded in all-male environments like (historically) jail and the military, or in places where disrespect for femininity runs rampant.
Feminine-tamed need not mean effete. Hope all blokes from the butchest to the meekest can still appreciate wildflowers and respect boundaries
But look at the amount of knowledge that Byron deploys in his poetry. He was well read, even bookish (he famously read at breakfast). And the rest of course. Russel Brand? Good god!
I used to listen to Brand’s act sometimes, both in recorded public performances and on his podcast. Would say he’s at least unevenly well-read, with a certainly literary flair. Intellect isn’t his key deficit.
Was reading at breakfast rare in the early-19th century?
I think Byron was trying to explain how he managed to read so much. He read at times other people didn’t.
I find Brand both unfunny and not particularly intelligent. I really can’t see the appeal.
I sensed that was your take. I found him witty and often funny–past tense for me, at least for the foreseeable future–though I’d agree he’s not particularly intelligent, nor erudite. And he’s always had the impish rogue side too, even before he became a half-pious crusader or had his “predatory escapades” exposed. A bit deeper than Johnny Depp though, yes? An admittedly low bar.
Byron was not a strong student as a youth, nor considered learned in his day (at least according to a Life of Byron by J.W. Lake, prefixed to an 1837 volume of his poems I was re-reading earlier today). Neither was Shakespeare.
Even so, I don’t think UnHerd Reader #unknown or I asserted any connection between Russell Brand and rare genius, or to the poetic gift of Byron.
Are there present-day “celebrities” you do find notably brilliant and funny?
Leaving aside those who are unintentionally funny. Ricky Gervais, Bill Burr, Chris Rock. Curb your enthusiasm is good. Dave Chapelle. Almost forgot: Tim Minchin – talented, dripping intelligence, and seems to be a really nice guy. Amanda Palmer and Regina Spector, very talented song writers.
Lots more I’m sure, but they tend to be a bit off the radar.
I share much of your list, especially Burr, Minchin, and Chappelle. Respect Palmer but some of her work is inTENSE. Cheers.
It’s always worked for me. Despite constant penury, striking rather than handsome features, and being a shortarse, I’ve found that giving the impression you can hold your own in a bar fight AND knock out a sonnet means you never sleep alone unless you want to.
Russell Brand – respect boundaries?
Have you been away for a while?
Ann Millbank (Byron’s wife) was so horrified by Byron’s behaviour, she had their daughter Ada (later Lovelace) tutored in maths and science in the hope she would grow up to be nothing like her father. Ada never attended school or university but nonetheless collaborated with Charles Babbage and other leading mathematicians of the time. The first computer program is attributed to her. Ada possessed the creativity of her father but applied it differently (mostly). She recognised the power and potential of Babbage’s analytical engine: the precursor to the computer.
Don Juan isn’t just funny, parts of it are laugh out loud hysterical. And the amazing thing is the sheer amount he wrote – stanza after stanza. Our own Byronic heroes might manage a few weak pop songs, but that’s your lot.
If reading him is a bit daunting, get an audio book.
In full agreement here. Except to insist that next to no one (over)uses “Byronic” to suggest a strong connection to Byron’s poetic gift or body of work. Granted, his undeservedly low present-day readership means that few know much about that gift.
Didn’t you find getting through Don Juan a bit daunting? I skimmed part of the middle but plan to make amends. An audiobook is actually an excellent suggestion for rhyming verse, and for those of us with diminished eyesight. Alternately, read the best stanzas aloud to yourself, pets, neighbors, etc.
I went for the audiobook, and listened to it several times through. For me, way better than trying to read it. And the drama comes across far better. Goethe rated Byron as a superior poet to himself! Wrong, I would say, but still should not have fallen into neglect the way he has.
Unqualified agreement. I’Il leave you be after this: Was your version read by Jonathan Keeble?
It was indeed. Very good. Years ago I remember hearing the first part read by Montgomery Clift of all people.
Some interesting stuff on slavery in the Ottoman Empire tucked in there too. If I remember correctly Byron describes the lines of black and white slaves in the slave market as looking like a backgammon board. A big surprise for anyone who assumes slavery was only of black people and only by Europeans.
I agree about the humour; I laughed out loud at some of it too. It is long of course, but I found you could read it at quite a good lick without losing the sense of what he was saying; it even helped by stopping you getting bogged down and losing sight of the overall meaning.
The piece where Don Alphonso breaks in on Donna Julia looking for her lover is a piece of extended comic genius. It’s hard not to imagine Byron laughing as he wrote it.
In general, Byronic means: like Byron, minus the humour, minus the melancholy, minus the world weariness, minus the erudition and minus the talent. But generally with better feet.
Well said.
My favorite poem by Byron is “The Prisoner of Chillon”, but, based on the “Stop, traveler, and piss” quote above, I will definitely read Castlereagh!
BTW, this line is a reference to the classic Latin phrase: Sta, viator! Byron was well read, indeed.
What is “queering” and why exactly is it a “plus”?
On the academic left anything which moves things away from what is considered “normal” is good. Queering is that applied to the sex, gender space. So if you imagine a white, cis, heterosexual, middle class western male, with ordinary sexual habits – the further you get from that the better.
Its not so stupid if it means just opening our minds to things we are not familiar with, but it has become obsessive, taking on a moral and aesthetic tone – as in “it’s just art by dead, cis, heterosexual white men” or “pale, male and stale” and therefore both bad (aesthetically and morally” and suspect.
To use a great Briticism that is catching on in the States: spot on.
Its depressing, but you are right.
I’m surprised the author didn’t bring up Andrew Tate, also on the lam in Eastern Europe.
The present Lord Byron, the 13th Lord Byron, used as a maritime solicitor to receive a favourable reception from Greek ship-owning clients as a result of the continuing high regard the Greeks have for his ancestor despite not being particularly “Byronic” himself.
It is worth choosing your ancestors wisely.