George Gordon Byron. Biography
The majestic monument towers the figure of G. G. Byron over the cultural life of the early XIX century. What ecstatic inscriptions did not leave on him contemporaries of this century! An ingenious artist and selfless fighter for freedom, Byron was in their eyes the standard-bearer of the romantic movement in art, the spiritual leader of a whole generation, a true and exemplary hero of a new era and even more – her creator. It is not without reason that in one of his poems Alexander Pushkin put an equal sign between Byron and Napoleon, thus expressing the idea that the influence of the great English poet on culture was equivalent to the influence of the great French commander on history. Further went VG Belinsky, who called the famous romantic from the foggy Albion Prometheus century. This definition reflects the very essence of the role,
However, the colossal success was due not only to the personal talents and merits of the poet. In part, he was also explained by the fact
JG Byron was born in London on January 22, 1788 in a family that was rooted in English and Scottish kings, but who already owned the remains of the great-grandfather’s wealth. His father did not know his father: soon after his birth he fled from creditors to France, where a few years later he died. Education mother at first was his mother – a woman
Until ten years Byron with his mother lived in Scotland, which he used to consider his homeland; then a small family moved to England, where he settled in the estate of Newstead, inherited from the poet’s cousin. In addition to the estate more like ruins than the ancestral nest of an old aristocratic family, the grandfather gave the grandson the title of peer of England, and with it – and the seat in the English parliament, which Byron could occupy after reaching maturity. So the prospect of a parliamentary career opened before the boy. Now he had to get an education worthy of a future MP.
In 1801, Byron entered a closed school in Harrow, where scions of wealthy aristocratic families, mostly preparing for a political career, were studying. The future poet repeatedly appealed to his mother with requests to take him out of the educational institution, where he suffered because of humiliations and resentments, but already in those difficult, and sometimes intolerable for his pride, conditions: “I can make my way in the world, and I Many will start life with nothing, and end with great people. “Am I really going to be inactive if I have a sufficient, even a small fortune?” No, I will pierce my way to the Heights of Glory… ” Ambitious hopes were strengthened by the example of Napoleon Bonaparte, who managed to do what the English teenager dreamed vaguely. In his school years, Byron hid the bust of Napoleon at the head of the bed and fiercely defended his idol from the mockery of his comrades. Many years later, when, after the overthrow of Napoleon, who used the revolution to establish his own tyranny, Europe triumphed in reaction, twenty-five-year-old Byron wrote in his diary: “I believed that if he fell, the whole world would collapse, I did not think he step by step, step back into a nothingness, I believed that all this is not just a caprice of the gods, but a prelude to further changes and huge events… And now we again slide back to the stupid old equilibrium system. ” with him the whole world will collapse, I did not think that he would step back step by step into a nonentity; I believed that all this is not just a whim of the gods, but a prelude to further changes and huge events… And now we again slide back to the stupid old equilibrium system. ” with him the whole world will collapse, I did not think that he would step back step by step into a nonentity; I believed that all this is not just a whim of the gods, but a prelude to further changes and huge events… And now we again slide back to the stupid old equilibrium system. “
At school, under the hum of the disapproval of his mentors, Byron began to practice versification, and during the years of his studies at the prestigious Cambridge University, he had already published an immature, but indisputably marked, poetic collection, The Watch of Leisure. The talent of the novice poet was noted by readers with a developed artistic taste, but critics brought down a series of ridicule on him. Byron did not stay indebted and next year appeared in print with a poetic text, in which he dealt with his abusers, and at the same time poured satire on almost all prominent English and Scottish writers. This time, he recognized a strong literary fighter, able to make to reckon with himself any opponents.
In 1809, Byron went on a two-year journey, during which he visited Portugal, Spain, Malta, Albania, Turkey and Greece. Traveling through the glorified Romantics to the East, the poet discovered not only the beauty of exotic nature and the originality of cultural traditions, but also the socio-historical problems of the lives of peoples who were under the heel of foreign conquerors. New impressions for several years became the main source of Byron’s creativity. They were directly reflected in the first two songs of the famous “Childe Harold Pilgrimage”, which marked the beginning of a rich series of romantic poems by an English artist.
Having published on his return home, in 1811, the ready-made parts of the “Childe Harold Pilgrimage”, Byron, by his own expression, woke up famous. “The whole city,” wrote about this moment of life of the English poet A. Maurois, “spoke only of Byron.” Crowds of famous people sought to be represented, left their business cards… The publishing house showed a copy of Childe Harold, which The Princess Charlotte brought the necklace together… At the high-society dinners the incessantly repeated “Bairn, Bairn” sounded unceasingly: At that time every season there was definitely a political, military or literary lion., In the evenings of 1812 Byron was everywhere a lion, not who had a rival nicknames “.
On the laurels of his early glory, the poet could rest quietly for many years, but his indomitable nature demanded decisive action in the public sphere. The chair in the House of Lords seemed to give him the opportunity to influence the political life of the country, and Byron honestly made several attempts to do so. However, convinced of the failure of all his undertakings, he soon lost interest in parliamentary activities.
From 1813 to 1816, Byron literally attacked the public with new compositions. A number of poems written in the footsteps of his voyage to the East-Giaure, Abydos Bride, Corsair, Lara, Siege of Corinth, etc.-depicted hero rebels who had embarked on the path of revenge, crime or struggle in the name of protecting freedom. The moods of sorrow and despair captured in these poems received a powerful tragic sound in the collection of poems “Jewish melodies”, where pictures of the biblical story – the great battles, the ruin of kingdoms and the deprivations of the people, which remained steadfast in the hardest trials, were saturated with the spiritual experience of a contemporary of the early 19th century.
Literary glory of Byron grew rapidly, spreading further outside of England. Together with her, around the poet, who was constantly in the sight of the “big world”, grew and unkind rumors, fueled by his insolent politicians and writers. When, in 1816, it became known about the collapse of the rebellion of the rebellious lord with Anabella Milbank, in which aristocratic society saw the model of an ideal wife, a public scandal erupted. One of the newspapers without Byron’s permission printed his poem “Forgive,” intended for his wife and ending with piercing lines: “Farewell, and if forever, then forever good-bye.” The publisher accompanied the publication with a commentary, in which he indicated that when evaluating Byron’s political writings, one should bear in mind his attitude toward his “
At first Byron settled in Switzerland, on the shores of Lake Geneva. There he held an extremely important meeting with the most talented British poet-romantic Percy Bysshe Shelley – the same as he, a voluntary exile who fell victim to public condemnation. This meeting laid the foundation for the close friendship of the two poets, who forever put their names side by side in the history of English literature. In Switzerland, Byron entered the phase of mature creativity, marked by the appearance of such brilliant works as lyric poems “Stanza to Augusta”, a poetic drama “Manfred”, a poem “The Chillon Prisoner”, the third and fourth songs of the “Childe Harold Pilgrimage”, etc.
Some of these works were completed in Italy, where Byron moved to the end of 1816 and where he joined the activities of a secret revolutionary organization fighting for the liberation of Italian lands from Austrian domination. The poet was clearly aware that the Carbonarians were weaker than their enemies, and therefore doubted the success of their uprising, but nevertheless helped the Italian revolutionaries with everything they could. The romanticism of life in Italy, which Byron loved fervently as a country of strong passions, high cultural achievements and an indestructible spirit of freedom, inspired him to conceive new artistic works. There was written a poem “Mazepa”, depicting one of the most colorful figures of Ukrainian history; the poetic tragedy “Cain”, representing the infamous biblical character in the heroic aureole of the “first rebel” on the ground; poem “Beppo”, containing a sarcastic satire on reality, etc. The poet also created a significant part of the poem “Don Giovanni”, conceived by him as a grandiose encyclopedia of European life at the turn of the XVIII-XIX centuries. and designed to sum up his spiritual and creative quest. Unfortunately, the author did not manage to finish the work on this work to the end.
In 1823, Byron arrived in Greece, fighting for liberation from Ottoman rule. On personal means, the poet gathered an armed detachment and landed on the island of Kefalonia, where he was one of the centers of the uprising. In Kefalonia, he wrote a poem in which there is a significant line: “Tyrants press the world – I’ll give up?”
As one of the organizers of the struggle of the Greeks against the invaders, Byron had to solve many business issues, conduct endless negotiations, endure hardships and endanger the dangers of military camp life. In the spring of 1824 the poet suddenly fell ill and soon died. He was only thirty-six years old. In a sign of deep sorrow, the provisional Greek government declared national mourning. The cultural world mourned the premature death of JG Byron as the greatest loss
The finale of this short but full of great achievements of life was truly heroic. Disappointed and fed up with peace aristocrat could spend the rest of his days in the quiet of the family castle. The poet of pan-European fame could live his fate, given his fate, content with creativity and enthusiastic recognition of the public. But Byron – the hereditary lord and the first poet of his time, most appreciated freedom and eager to act for her celebration – came to the outskirts of Europe to fight on the side of the insurgent people and ultimately to give his life for his freedom. It was a fitting end to the great path of the great romanticist to the Glory Pinnacles.
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