Byron attended university ‘intermittently’ – when the fancy took him! It was not compulsory for noblemen to attend lectures or take public exams - and he had many other matters on his mind. He liked to give the impression that he was engaged in core elements of university life - constant drinking, gambling and dissipation. He did, however, spend a fair amount of time on literary pursuits, honing his language skills, participating in active sports… and walking his pet bear ‘Bruin’ on a chain like a dog!
“I have got a new friend, the finest in the world, a tame bear. When I brought him here, they asked me what I meant to do with him, and my reply was ‘He should sit for a fellowship’.” (Letter to Elizabeth Pigott)
The College authorities had told Byron that dogs were banned and that he could not bring his pet bulldog with him. Instead, he bought a brown bear and homed Bruin in close proximity to his ‘super-excellent rooms’ located in the Southeast corner of the Great Court (most likely at the top of the hexagonal turret of the K staircase). The family solicitor, John Hanson, secured from the Court of Chancery a grant of £500pa for Byron’s education – an amount greater than many other student grants!
“I am now most pleasantly situated in Superexcellent Rooms. I am allowed 500a year, a servant and a horse, so feel as independent as a German prince!”
This amount, however, proved insufficient to cover his extravagant lifestyle as Byron spent money well beyond his means – on new furniture, china and crystal, a large four poster bed and a variety of alcoholic beverages (including wine, port, claret and madeira). He was soon forced to borrow from moneylenders to pay his bills.
Byron had enjoyed his last two years at Harrow School and initially struggled to settle into university life. He attended university irregularly, declaring that social and athletic activities interested him more than formal academic pursuits.
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| Byron in Undergraduate Dress (c.1806) Anonymous (Alamy) |
Despite having previously expressed a dislike for Latin and a poor grasp of Greek vocabulary, his attitude toward the Classics shifted while at Cambridge University. His academic achievements were notably –
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Greater depth of study of the classics – delving into the languages (Latin and Greek), literature, history, philosophy and culture of ancient Greece and Rome
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Reading ancient Greek and Latin literature (like Ovid, Homer, Virgil, Horace) in their original form
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Exploring foundational ideas from thinkers like Plato, Aristotle
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History and Philosophy – providing a wider view on subjects such as society and governance through the ages
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Modern languages (Italian and modern Greek) - reflecting his desire to read the likes of Dante’s Inferno and Aristo’s Orlando Furioso without relying on translations
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Mathematics (a central part of the curriculum) – which he did not enjoy!
His hours of idleness provided Byron with the opportunity to develop his own literary talents – reading the works of classical poets such as Catullus and Anacreon and developing his own individual style of writing.
Byron liked to give the impression that he was engaged in the core extracurricular activities of Cambridge life which confirmed his somewhat rebellious and hedonistic lifestyle of excess.
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Sporting events: horse riding and horse racing; swimming in the river Cam; boxing and fencing
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Social activities: socialising, partying and indulgent drinking (notably claret)
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Heavy gambling: building substantial debts at an alarming rate
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Sexual fluidity: generally anonymous casual encounters and sexual escapades with both men and women
Encouraged by Edward Noel Long, Byron lost the weight he had put on at Harrow School and stayed slim until his time in Italy in 1818. In Autumn 1806, weighing 202lbs. (Height 5ft 8.5ins.) he lost weight through dieting (one meal a day and little or no alcohol), violent exercise and hot baths – turning himself into a handsome and charismatic figure.
“I believe you would not recognise “George Gordon”, at least many of my acquaintance, who have seen me since our meeting, have hardly believed their optics, my visage is lengthened, I appear taller, & somewhat slim, & “mirabile dictu!!’’… I grow thin daily; since the commencement of my System I have lost 23 lbs. in my weight. When I began, I weighed 14st. 6lbs., and on Tuesday I found myself reduced to 12st. 11lbs. What sayest thou, Ned? do you not envy? I shall still proceed till I arrive at 12st. and then stop, at least if I am not too fat, but shall always live temperately and take much exercise.’’ (Letter to Edward Noel Long:1807)
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| George Gordon, 6th Lord Byron by George Sanders (Wikimedia Commons) |
The Sanders picture was given by Byron to his mother who said – “The countenance is angelic and the finest I ever saw and it is very like.” (Catherine Byron)
It was London society that witnessed Byron’s frequent and extended breaks from academia.
Social activities
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Private clubs such as The Cocoa Tree – a chocolate house in St James Street. An exclusive elite club which served as a hub for socialising, political discussion and gambling
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Theatres such as the Theatre Royal Drury Lane and Covent Garden
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Gambling in exclusive gentleman’s clubs like Waiter’s, Whites and Brooks’s
Sporting activities
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The Bond Street Boxing and Fencing Academy – a premier social and athletic hub for the aristocracy
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Boxing (pugilistic) tuition from ‘Gentleman’ John Jackson – bare-knuckle champion of England
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Fencing lessons (foils and broadsword) with Henry Angelo
Sexual encounters
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Casual sex with working women – sex workers and actresses
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
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Waiter’s Boxing Fencing Drury Lane Theatre
With easy exemption from attendance at lectures and exams, Byron was able to vary his location according to his personal preferences and literary requirements. Initially he spent prolonged periods of time at his mother’s home in Southwell during vacations. He made friends with Elizabeth and John Pigott who lived across the road from Burgage Manor, engaged in private theatricals and flirted with Southwell belles (notably Julia Leacroft).
Southwell is recognized as the birthplace of Byron’s poetry. Encouraged by Elizabeth Pigott, he printed privately and distributed anonymously to friends, his first collection of poems Fugitive Pieces in November 1806. A proof copy was presented to Elizabeth Pigot’s relative, the Rev. John Thomas Becher - then vicar of Rampton in Nottinghamshire. He protested that the lines under the title ‘To Mary’ were unsuitably outspoken and indecent. He objected to the explicit eroticism and ‘voluptuous colouring’ of some of the verses – notably the sensual and suggestive descriptions of physical intimacy in the poem.
No more the genial couch we bless,
Dissolving in the fond caress;
Our love o’erthrown will ne’er return.
“A volume of all my Juvenilia…It is of considerably greater size, than the Copy (Fugitive Pieces) in your possession which I beg you will destroy, as the present is much more complete; that unlucky poem to my poor Mary, has been the Cause of some Animadversion from Ladies in years. I have not printed it in this Collection in Consequence of my being pronounced, a most profligate Sinner.’’ (Letter to John Pigot; Southwell 1807)
Hours of Idleness was published in June 1807 under his own name – ‘George Gordon, Lord Byron, A Minor.’
Byron (aged nineteen) returned to Cambridge as a published poet to establish himself as a man of letters and bolster his social status amongst his peers.
Besides renewing acquaintances, he formed an enduring friendship with John Cam Hobhouse and joined the Cambridge Whig Club in 1807 – a home for liberal politics and constitutionalism. Byron’s liberal leanings and oppositional views proved to be those of an intelligent intellectual and a political revolutionary.
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| Lord Byron when at Cambridge - Watercolour drawing by Gilchrist (Newstead Abbey) |
Byron received a Master of Arts degree in July 1808. Later that year, he moved to his ancestral home, Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire where he began undertaking renovations before turning twenty-one in January and embarking upon his Grand Tour on 2nd July 1809.
The forming of strong bonds of friendship was a significant part of Byron’s time at Trinity College, Cambridge.
Edward Noel Long – Byron’s classmate at Harrow school obsessed with weight management and physical fitness. Their friendship continued throughout their time at university. They went on long swims and horse rides together. Long joined the Coldstream Guards and died at sea during the Peninsular War at the age of only twenty-one.
John Cam Hobhouse – founder of the Whig Club and writer of verse. His liberal whig opinions helped Byron establish his own political beliefs. ‘Hobby’ was often perceived as Byron’s faithful friend and ‘bulldog’. He accompanied Byron on his travels and became an important link between the poet and his London publisher.
Charles Skinner Mathews - known for his atheism and republican views. He founded the ‘circle of friends’ who enjoyed diverse sexual exploits - using a private ‘latin’ code to communicate about their shared interests. A common term in their letters was ‘pl. & opt.Cs’ for the Latin phrase ‘coitum plenum et optabilem’ (complete intercourse to one’s heart’s desire’).
Scrope Berdmore Davies – a fellow gambler, Davies was by far the more successful. Based on his winnings, he guaranteed the loan, without which Byron may have been forced to abandon all hope of a Grand Tour.
George Bryan ‘Beau’ Brummell – the high priest of men’s fashion and preeminent example of the dandy. He rejected overly ornate outfits in favour of understated but perfectly fitted and tailored bespoke items of clothing. At times, Brummell and Byron used the same tailor and visited the same high stakes gambling and fine dining clubs – notably Waiter’s (nicknamed ‘the Dandy Club’ by Byron).
John Edelston – a chorister at Trinity Chapel, Cambridge. They met in the Autumn of 1805 when Byron was seventeen and John Edlestone was fifteen. Byron described the choirboy as follows –
“He is exactly to an hour two years younger than myself … He is nearly my height, very thin, very fair complexion, dark eyes and light locks… When I entered Trinity College, his voice first attracted my notice, his countenance fixed it, & his manners attached me to him forever”. (Letters to Elizabeth Pigott)
Their brief friendship appeared largely to be based upon romantic, homoerotic desires described as “a violent though pure love and passion.” Edleston gave Byron a heart-shaped cornelian stone mounted as a brooch pin. Byron described The Cornelian as a pledge of a love that was ‘guiltless’ and ‘pure’.
Edleston left the choir in the autumn of 1807 to enter the commercial world and work in a Mercantile House (privately financed trading company).
“Edleston and I have parted for the present., & my mind is a Chaos of hope and sorrow”. (Letter to Elizabeth Pigott)
Whilst Byron was travelling abroad, Eddleston died of consumption at the age of only twenty-one. Initially Byron had given the Cornelian brooch to Elizabeth Pigott, for safekeeping. Following Eddleston’s death, Byron wrote to her mother and asked that the brooch be returned to him. He had the stone removed from its setting and mounted into a ring – which he treasured and wore for the rest of his life.
“The pledge we wore – I wear it still, / But where is thine? – Ah! Where art thou?”
Byron penned several elegies, collectively known as the Thyrza poems, which were printed in 1812 with Childe Harold Canto 1&II. Byron used the feminine pseudonym ‘Thyrza’ (the wife of Abel) and female pronouns to conceal the nature of their intense, pure, and platonic relationship. In these poems Byron hints at a profound almost spiritual love that was intense but chaste, involving handholding ‘the pressure of the thrilling hand’ and innocent kisses – ‘the kiss so guiltless and refined.’
To Thyrza is a deeply personal lament, a poignant expression of grief, loss and separation. The poem presents an idealized vision of love chacterised by purity, understanding and spiritual connection rather than mere physical desire.
To Thyrza: And Thou Art Dead -
As aught of mortal birth;
And form so soft and charm so rare
Too soon returned to Earth!
Though Earth received them in her bed,
And o’er the spot the crowd may tread
In carelessness or mirth,
There is an eye which could not brook
A moment on that grave to look.
