Dangerous to Know?
Other scandals involving this self-destructive poet included his love affair with his half-sister, Augusta Leigh, which shocked London society, and his short-lived marriage to the prim and proper Annabella Milbanke who was totally unsuited to him. Even Annabella, whom he treated very badly, admitted that Byron had a 'good heart'. Perhaps Lady Caroline's phrase really didn't apply.
Byron left England partly to get away from these scandals and partly because he loved the greater freedom and beauty of Europe. He went to Switzerland where he met Shelley and his wife Mary.
Perhaps Lady Caroline's phrase applies more to this famous revolutionary poet. Also an aristocrat, Shelley rebelled against his background even to the extent of becoming a vegetarian. This annoyed his autocratic father greatly especially when the young man was 'sent down' from Oxford for distributing subversive literature. Shelley fell in love young and eloped to Scotland with his childhood sweetheart, Harriet. When he came back to London he continued with his revolutionary politics handing out leaflets and pamphlets and becoming involved with the Godwin's.
Godwin agreed with many of Shelley's views but wasn't impressed when the married man ran off to Europe with his free-thinking, young daughter, Mary. Later they took Claire, Mary's half-sister with them. When the abandoned Harriet committed suicide Shelley married Mary.
These five lived a Bohemian life in Geneva. "Percy Shelley described the house as a menagerie Michael Jackson would envy with "eight enormous dogs, three monkeys, five cats, an eagle, a crow, and a falcon; and all these, except the horses, walk about the house, which every now and then resounds with their unarbitrated quarrels, as if they were masters of it." 2. At night they delighted in telling each other ghost stories and Mary penned the famous Frankenstein, about a monster who comes to life and can't be controlled.
Either Byron couldn't resist women or they couldn't resist him and he had yet another affair. This time it was with Claire. Sadly their daughter Allegra died tragically at a very young age.
The group ended up in Italy where Byron wrote his famous Don Juan and Shelley, Julian and Maddalo. Here Shelley died tragically in a boating accident and Byron and his friends made a pagan pyre for his funeral.
Byron died of illness, but heroically, having joined the Greeks in their fight for independence against the Ottoman Empire. In spite of the scandals Byron hated government tyranny and the hypocrisy
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