/lit/ - Literature

To Mary Shelley, December, 1822

As to friendship, it is a propensity in which my genius is very limited. I do not know the male human being, except Lord Clare, the friend of my infancy, for whom I feel any thing that deserves the name. All my others are men-of-the-world friendships. I did not even feel it for Shelley, however much I admired and esteemed him; so that you see not even vanity could bribe me into it, for, of all men, Shelley thought highest of my talents,--and, perhaps, my disposition.

I will do my duty by my intimates, upon the principle of doing as you would be done by. I have done so, I trust, in most instances. I may be pleased with their conservation--rejoice in their success--be glad to do them service, or to receive their counsel and assistance in return. But as for friends and friendship, I have (as I already said) named the only remaining male for whom I feel any thing of the kind, excepting, perhaps, Thomas Moore. I have had, and may have still, a thousand friends, as they are called, in life, who are like one's partners in the waltz of this world--not much remembered when the ball is over, though very pleasant for the time. Habit, business, and companionship in pleasure or in pain, are links of a similar kind, and the same faith in politics is another...

Byron

>>628915

P.S. I fucked the maid yesterday. I hope you don't mind.

P.P.S. Also her sister.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPXokTCcPww

P.P.P.S. And also your brother and that fair-haired young boy he keeps around.

>>632272
Wow. What a douche.

>>632322
She was 18, a former nun, and married. He was in his 30s and fucking her. Say what you want, but he was doing something right.

Missolonghi, February 23, 1824

My dearest Augusta,
[.....]
I have been obtaining the release of about nine and twenty Turkish prisoners-men, women, and children, and have sent them at my own expense home to their friends, but one a pretty little girl of nine years of age named Hato or Hatagee, has expressed a strong wish to remain with me, or under my care, and I have nearly determined to adopt her. If I thought that Lady B. would let her come to England as a Companion to Ada--(they are about the same age), we could easily provide for her; if not, I can send her to Italy for education. she is very lively and quick, and with great black oriental eyes, and Asiatic features. All her brothers were killed in the Revoulution; her mother wishes to return to her husband who is at Prevesa, but says that she would rather entrust the child to me in the present state of the Country. her extreme youth and sex have hitherto saved her life, but there is no saying what might occur in the course of the war (and of such a war), and I shall probably commit her to the charge of some English lady in the islands for the present. The Child herself has the same wish, and seems to have a decided character for her age. You can mention this matter if you think it worth while. I merely wish her to be respectably educated and treated, and, if my years and all things be considered, I presume, it would be difficult to conceive me to have any other views.
[...]

Byron

>>632373
>I merely wish her to be respectably educated and treated, and, if my years and all things be considered, I presume, it would be difficult to conceive me to have any other views.

Is this sarcasm? If his "years and all things be considered," shouldn't everyone in England assume he is kidnapping this girl for lovemaking purposes?

>>632407
You again? Stop posting those shit comics. They suck.

Where are you getting these, OP?

>>632451

YEAH KATE BEATON STOP POSTING YOUR COMICS ON LIT NOBODY LIKES THEM

>>632326
Someone said that being noble back then was like being in a band nowadays.

>>632457
George Gordon, Lord Byron - Selected Poetry and Letters (ed. Edward E. Bostetter)

>>632461
Bacause of you I googled her name, and I lol'd at this one.

I am a partially unemployed Swedish male by the way. Not Kate Beaton.

>>632474
That last frame needs to be clipped and posted every time there is a woman-hating thread on /lit/.

>>632474

SHUT UP I KNOW YOU ARE KATE BEATON YOU ARE A WOMAN AND YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO READ BOOKS

>>632501

BUT I DO NOT WANT TO TURN THIS INTO A THREAD ABOUT KATE BEATON OR WOMEN SO I WILL ONLY ADD THAT LORD BYRON IS A FREAKIN BADASS OKAY

AND I USE THE PRESENT TENSE BECAUSE HE IS STILL ALIVE

AND HE IS ME

>>632501

Thread quarantined. Level III Hazmat required for entrance.

>>632509
oh good, someone cropped this already. i was about to do that.

>>632514
Oh, come on! Byron fucked around but he wasn't so dirty he needed a full hazmat team and quarantine. He didn't even die of syphilis like so many famous lovers of his time!

>>632524

Byron's come down with a severe case of the Kate Beatons. I'm afraid its contagious.

>>632525
Ahh, dearest Kate, how I lust for you...

To John Murray, Venice, May 30, 1817

[...]
The day before I left Rome I saw three robbers guillotined. The ceremony--including the masqued priests; the half-naked executioners; the bandaged criminals; the black Christ and his banner; the scaffold; the soldiery; the slow procession, and the quick rattle and heavy fall of the axe; the splash of the blood, and the ghastliness of the exposed heads--is altogether more impressive than the vulgar and ungentlemanly dirty "new drop," and dog-like agony of infliction upon the sufferers of the English sentence. Two of these men behaved calmly enough, but the first of the three died with great terror and reluctance, which was very horrible. He would not lie down; then his neck was too large for the aperture, and the priest was obliged to drown his exclamations by still louder exhortations. The head was off before the eye could trace the blow; but from an attempt to draw back the head, notwithstanding it was held forward by the hair, the first head was cut off close to the ears: the other two were taken off more cleanly. It is better than the oriental way, and (I should think) than the axe of our ancestors. The pain seems little; and yet the effect to the spectator, and the preparation to the criminal, are very striking and chilling. The first turned me quite hot and thirsty, and made me shake so that I could hardly hold the opera-glass (I was close, but determined to see, as one should see every thing, once, with attention); the second and third (which shows how dreadfully soon things grow indifferent), I am ashamed to say, had no effect on me as a horror, though I would have saved them if I could.
[...]

Byron

>>632326
Byron was her cicisbeo. I seriously doubt anything went beyond a dab or two.

>>633260
>cicisbeo
What the hell does this mean?

>>633949
He was the gentleman who danced attendance on his Lady, a notion seemingly the aftermath of courtly love. Tolerated, encouraged, demanded by the customs of late 18th C Italy, the cicisbeo or cavalier servente was not a gigolo. He provided no overt sexual or amatory services but instead companionship, romance and courtly service to wealthy noblewomen, although I'm sure the line was crossed once in a while. He was very much like Georgie to Lucia.

>>634018
This is Lord Byron we're talking about. Not some pansy-ass, run-of-the-mill 19th century cicesbo. He pounded it.

>>634199
Certainly he would have you think so. Lady Teresa might feel differently.

Byron, at 5'8" and 200#+, was - how you call it? - globe. His gallantry very likely remained a matter of intimation rather than intimacy.

Through life's road, so dim and dirty,
I have dragg'd to three and thirty.
What have these years left to me?
Nothing - except, thirty-three.

>>634277
Byron wasn't so suave as a fat old man? That's too bad.