| |
| |
Byron |
 | | Byron's fame as a poet and his notoriety as a man were one; the scandals of his lifewhoring, marriage, adultery, incest, sodomybecame the text or subtext of his poems, made more shocking by the poet's cynicism shading into blasphemy. |
 | | Byron, the newly crowned king of London drawing rooms in 1814, saw clearly that as a poet who was also a satirist and social critic, as a peer who spoke out for the rights of starving weavers or Irish Catholics, he would not long be indulged for his youth, talent, and title. |
 | | Byron later defended his father, then long dead, against lingering rumors that his "brutal conduct" had been the cause of his first wife's death: "It is not by 'brutality' that a young Officer in the Guards seduces and carries off a Marchioness, and marries two heiresses. |
| partners.nytimes.com /books/first/e/eisler-byron.html (5087 words) |
|