Reader's Log 7A

At age ten Byron inherited a lordship by a fluke of circumstance, his more eligible male cousins having died prematurely. As a wealthy, privileged university student he lived a life of the rake, dissipating his money and health in drink and debauchery. At twenty-one, already world-weary, he departed on a two year tour of the Continent, a venture undertaken by many young English men of means. While traveling he wrote the first two cantos of Childe Harold, whose publication in 1812 made him instantly famous or, more accurately, infamous, since the reading public, while fascinated by the image he projected of a disdainful, womanizing scapegrace, generally disapproved of him to the point of ostracism. He was handsome, unprincipled, and libidinous, with the result that his sex life became legendary. He formed liaisons with dozens, if not hundreds, of women, including his half-sister. Although he married a respectable woman and sired a daughter, he and his wife predictably did not live together for long.

The fictional protagonist of Childe Harold was the first instance of what is now called the Byronic hero, a strong-willed, highly individualistic man who flouts the conventions of ordinary society. Further developments of this character type appear in Byron's closet drama, Manfred, and in his recognized masterpiece, the long satirical verse narrative Don Juan. It will pay you to digest on pp. 1636-1637 your editors' discussion of the Byronic hero and of the public's assumption that Byron, the creator of the literary version, was an authentic real-life example of it. To a considerable degree Byron's life validates the public view of him although, as your editors point out, among his close friends he showed quite another face. In any event, with Byron began the myth of the artist-literary and otherwise-as a creative genius standing in alienated isolation from society at large and pointing the way toward, if not revolution, at least radical reform. To some degree all six of the major Romantic poets fit the pattern. Though Wordsworth fits it the least clearly, you will recall that even he embraced the renovating principles of the French Revolution until it turned chaotically violent. As for literary examples of the type, your editors justly point out Heathcliff of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights and Ahab of Herman Melville's Moby Dick. Protagonists who are alienated from their respective societies abound in literature since the Romantic Era though admittedly most of them lack the frenzied defiance of the true Byronic hero.

READER'S LOG. She walks in beauty, pp. 1640-1641. Read the editors' note. This poem portrays the solemn beauty of a young widow. Tell in your own words the moral qualities which it ascribes to her.

READER'S LOG. When we two parted, p. 1642. Having read this poem, reread the editors' statement regarding the incestuous relationship between Byron and his half-sister, middle of p. 1638. Comment as to whether you could easily believe that this poem is addressed to her.

READER'S LOG. When a man hath no freedom to fight for at home, p. 1645. After reading this poem, read again the last two paragraphs of the editors' introduction, p. 1639. It may help you to realize that the 19^th century saw the emergence of a number of new nations in Europe (including, for example, Germany, which hitherto had existed as a loose federation of principalities). The right of an ethnically similar group of people to govern themselves appealed to Byron. Byron had a special affection for Greece, which had existed for centuries under the hegemony of the Muslim Ottoman Empire centered in Turkey. Although many young men of Romantic temperament empathized with nationalistic aspirations, Byron showed exceptional energy and passion by committing himself and his wealth, rather than simply his poems, to the cause of Greek freedom. In note # 1, p. 1645, the editors speak of the poem assigned here as expressing an "ironist's attitude." In your own words, point out the irony which the poem expresses.

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, pp. 1645-1658. Read the editors' introduction, pp. 1645-1646. This poetic travelogue traces Byron's own wandering on the Continent through the narrated adventures of a persona, a semi-fictional character called Childe Harold (childe being a medieval term indicating the status of a noble youth destined for knighthood). Travel literature was a popular genre in an era before rapid forms of transportation and electronic entertainment. Byron's work is distinguished from most travel books by the satirical infusions of a cynical and not altogether moral narrator. The first two cantos made Byron famous. The third, written several years later, enlarged the persona of Childe Harold. The fourth, coming yet a year later, abandoned the persona, becoming something close to autobiography. In the four cantos, Byron engages in a wide-ranging critique of both himself and European society, the satirical commentary of the work being far more significant than its explications of foreign customs and landscapes. Though his poetic medium and his cynical attitude set him apart from the Neoclassical tradition, his practice of satire places him within it. You are reminded that the cultural influences of one era do not die out instantly nor completely in the succeeding era.

READER'S LOG. Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto 1, pp. 1646-1647. This brief excerpt shows the Spenserian stanzas in which Byron chose to cast his tale. Please refresh yourself on the details of this nine line stanza which ends with an Alexandrine, bottom of p. 2843. It is called Spenserian because it was pioneered by Edmund Spenser of Elizabethan England in his novel-length allegory, The Faerie Queene. Turn briefly to the excerpts from that poetic narrative in your text, p. 362. You will see the intricate nine-line stanza. Note, too, the archaic words which Spenser, a contemporary of Shakespeare, chose in imitation of Chaucer. Returning to Byron's Canto 1, p. 1646, you will also see Chaucerian terms, an imitation on Byron's part not so much of Chaucer as of Spenser, probably a cynical gesture because Byron would have been keenly aware of the moral distance between the adamantly Christian virtues of the knight featured in Spenser's poetic romance and the epicurean vices of his Childe Harold. These vices are succinctly summarized in stanza 2. Stanza 4, p. 1647, reveals a result often following from dissipated living, ennui or boredom with all the known pleasures, which is a motive in Childe Harold's decision to quit England and travel on the Continent. Quote a line or two from stanza 4 which express this ennui.

READER'S LOG. Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, from Canto 3, stanzas 1-7, pp. 1647-1649. In stanza 1, speaking in the first person addresses, the narrator addresses Ada, Byron's recently born daughter whom he was never to see again. In stanza 3, the narrator speaks of the Childe Harold of whom some seven years earlier he had written in Canto 1, here characterized as "the wandering outlaw of his own dark mind." Now, says the narrator, he will renew "the theme" of that canto and "bear it with me" in this new canto. The negative words of lines 23-27 ("furrows of long thought," "sterile track," "not a flower appears") suggest that the prospect of this new canto gives him neither hope nor pleasure. Nonetheless he has a reason for pursuing the new canto, as he tells you in stanza 4, p. 1648. State in your own words what he expects from creating the canto.

READER'S LOG. Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, from Canto 3, stanzas 8-16, pp. 1649-1651. The narrator, speaking now in the third person, re-introduces Harold, who had returned from his earlier wanderings to dwell again among familiar society only to find himself, as the narrator explains in stanza 12, "the most unfit of men to herd with Man." From stanza 16, p. 1651, state in your own terms the attitude with which "self-exiled Harold" now goes forth again.

READER'S LOG. Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, from Canto 3, stanzas 85-98, pp. 1654-1657. In these stanzas, the narrator, again speaking in the first person, describes an all night vigil on a shore of Lake Leman, which divides the Alps from the Jura mountains and forms part of the border between France and Switzerland. In stanzas 85-91, the calm, moon-drenched natural scene evokes a joy and reverence in Byron close to those often felt in Wordsworth's nature poetry. Look especially at stanza 90. However, with stanza 92, a thunderstorm is announced which illuminates the lake and nearby mountains with a spectacular display of sound and flashing light. By stanza 96, the storm as subsided, morning arrives, and the poet is left calm yet fill with a perhaps puzzling insight. In stanza 97, pp.1656-1657, he reveals the particular aspect of his all-night experience that best summarizes his inner sense of himself. In your own words, state what that aspect of nature is and comment on whether you find it congruous with what else you know about Byron.

Don Juan, Canto 1, pp. 1658-1688. Read the editors' introduction, pp. 1658-1659. Read the first canto, pp. 1659-1688, with care. Browse through the excerpts from cantos 2 and 4. Note the British pronunciation of Juan: Joo-un, with the accent on the first syllable. The narrative begins in Spain, home of the legendary namesake of Byron's protagonist, but it deals in traits of mind and behavior that are thoroughly British. Byron began this long poetic narrative in 1618 and went on adding to it until his death in 1624, creating 16 cantos in all. The rambling, episodic plot involves a naive, overwhelmingly handsome young man who is ineluctably seduced by women, some of them married. This aspect of the plot reflects Byron's own life. (After something less than two years in Italy, he reported having had affairs with over two hundred women there.) Though by no means as passive and naive as his character, Byron was in fact an object of high interest to passionate women, both married and unmarried, and sometimes may have been a less than completely willing partner in an affair. Of equal interest to the reader of this work is the satirical critique of human nature and of English and Continental mores that emerge from the commentary of the ever-present narrator of the poem. Along with detailing Juan's amorous adventures, Byron creates a new persona for himself in the narrator, a self-deprecating man of the world whose affectionate ridicule of the foibles of humanity is colored by a recognition that they are fated and therefore inevitable.

READER'S LOG. Don Juan, Canto 1, stanzas 1-33, pp. 1660-1664. Also read the fragmentary stanza serving as a preface, bottom, p. 1659. In the first seven stanzas, the narrator parodies the authors of the ancient epics by contrasting the intended organization of his account with theirs. His assertion of the "regularity of my design" in stanza 7 is made with tongue in cheek, ironically stating precisely the opposite of what he delivers in the subsequent narrative. He goes on to introduce Juan's father and mother and to characterize their quarrelsome relationship. Their conflict is fueled by Dona Inez's adamant intellectual qualities. By the end of these stanzas, Juan is born, his father dies, and his mother is left in charge of his education. You will have noticed an almost flippant attitude to Byron's satire so far in the narrator's refusal to take his own account very seriously. He is, as you have already seen, willing to ridicule anything and everything, including himself. Select a stanza which strikes you as particularly expressive of this flippant quality and explain it in your own words.

READER'S LOG. Don Juan, Canto 1, stanzas 37-53, pp. 1664-1666. In these stanzas Byron takes ironic notice of the vast array of erotic accounts that Juan's education in the classics exposes him to. Keep in mind that in English society such an education was standard for any boy destined to become a well finished gentleman. From stanza 40, state in your own words why this exposure to the erotic content of classical literature is ironic.

READER'S LOG. Don Juan, Canto 1, stanzas 54-86, pp. 1666-1671. In these stanzas we are introduced to Dona Julia, 23, and her 50-year-old husband, Don Alfonso. Note particularly stanzas 60-61. In both stanza appear intrusive remarks by the narrator (lines 473 and 488) that disturb the tenor of the otherwise vivid and approving description of Dona Julia's physical person. Conjecture in your own words as to Byron's intent in inserting these intrusive remarks into his narrative.

READER'S LOG. Don Juan, Canto 1, stanzas 90-94, pp. 1671-1672. In these stanzas Byron parodies Wordsworth's account of the beneficent influence of nature upon the formation of his character while he had been a youth. You will see here allusions to the objects of nature and Juan's philosophical response to them that will remind you of Wordsworth, yet again Byron inserts remarks that disturb the tenor of the Wordsworthian mood. Quote single lines from at least three stanzas which seem to you to disturb the Wordsworthian mood. You have begun to see now how relentlessly Byron makes fun of everything and anything in his long poetic narrative. He is unquestionably the greatest satirist of the Romantic Era and a worthy peer of Swift and Pope.

READER'S LOG. Don Juan, Canto 1, stanzas 103-117, pp. 1672-1674. These stanzas narrate the fall of Dona Julia and Juan, precipitated by Dona Julia's decision that she must quell her wicked attraction to this youth by confronting it directly, a strategy which of course immediately fails. Note especially stanzas 115-116. The first narrates as much of the actual adultery as Byron intends to give his readers; the second scolds Plato, the ancient Greek philosopher to whom is accredited the notion of Platonic love, a form of love between a pair not involving sexual intercourse. Platonic love implied an actual commingling of the souls but not the bodies of the two lovers. Explain in your own terms why the narrator scolds Plato in stanza 116.

READER'S LOG. Don Juan, Canto 1, stanzas 126-198, pp. 1674-1684. In this lengthy, highly comic episode, the final adultery of Juan and Dona Julia is narrated. In it, after a futile initial search of his wife's bedroom, a repentant Don Alfonso returns to make his peace with his indignant wife only to stumble upon Juan, who flees without any clothes. With their adultery discovered, Dona Julia is divorced and consigned for the remainder of her life to a nunnery and the youthful Juan is sent abroad on travels by his mother. Take particular note in stanzas 192-197 of Julia's love letter, written from the convent. From stanzas 193-194, summarize in your own words Julia's attitude toward her discovered love affair and her view of the difference between men and women in their manner of loving.

READER'S LOG. Don Juan, Canto 1, stanzas 199-207, p. 1684-1685. In stanza 199, recognizing that he has essentially finished this canto, the narrator says that whether there will be more cantos will depend on the public reception of this one. In stanzas 200-203, the narrator again makes fun of neoclassical poets (some of whom were still publishing in Byron's time) for their slavish imitation of the twelve book structure of the ancient epics. Nonetheless, in stanzas 204-207, the narrator proceeds to make fun of his fellow Romantics, particularly those adhering to Wordsworth's theory of poetry, set forth in prose in the preface to Lyrical Ballads. From stanza 205 (taking into account the editors' note # 2), state in your own words Byron's position on neoclassical poetry.

READER'S LOG. Don Juan, Canto 1, stanzas 213-222, pp. 1686-1687. In stanzas 213-214, the narrator merges into Byron himself, as the poet becomes precisely autobiographical. However, the flippancy of the narrator returns in stanzas 215-216, where he says that now, at 30, he is no longer preoccupied by love but by avarice that is, by money making. Explain in your own words how this theme of avarice is comically renewed in lines 1761-1764, stanza 221.