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105-523: Hebrew Melodies is a collection of 30 poems by Lord Byron . They were largely created by Byron to accompany music composed by Isaac Nathan , who played the poet melodies which he claimed (incorrectly) dated back to the service of the Temple in Jerusalem . Nathan was an aspiring composer who was the son of a hazzan ( synagogue cantor) of Canterbury , of Polish-Jewish ancestry, and was originally educated to be

210-683: A rabbi . He had published an advertisement in the London Gentleman's Magazine in May 1813 that he was "about to publish 'Hebrew Melodies', all of them upward of 1000 years old and some of them performed by the Ancient Hebrews before the destruction of the Temple ." At this stage, he had no words to go with the melodies which he intended to adapt from synagogue usage (although in fact many of these tunes had originated as European folk-melodies and did not have

315-909: A branch of the department store John Lewis . His family in the English Midlands can be traced back without interruption to Ralph de Buran who arrived in England with William the Conqueror in the 11th century. His land holdings are listed in the Domesday Book . Byron was the only child of Captain John Byron (known as 'Jack') and his second wife, Catherine Gordon , heiress of the Gight estate in Aberdeenshire , Scotland. Byron's paternal grandparents were Vice Admiral John Byron and Sophia Trevanion. Having survived

420-530: A coincidence in Byron's chartering the Hercules . The vessel was launched only a few miles south of Seaham Hall , where in 1815 Byron had married Annabella Milbanke. Between 1815 and 1823 the vessel was in service between England and Canada. Suddenly in 1823, the ship's Captain decided to sail to Genoa and offer the Hercules for charter. After taking Byron to Greece, the ship returned to England, never again to venture into

525-501: 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 the masters of it... . [P.S.] I find that my enumeration of the animals in this Circean Palace was defective ... . I have just met on the grand staircase five peacocks, two guinea hens, and an Egyptian crane. I wonder who all these animals were before they were changed into these shapes. In 1821, Byron left Ravenna and went to live in

630-527: A deformed right foot; his mother once retaliated and, in a fit of temper, referred to him as "a lame brat". However, Byron's biographer, Doris Langley Moore , in her 1974 book Accounts Rendered , paints a more sympathetic view of Mrs Byron, showing how she was a staunch supporter of her son and sacrificed her own precarious finances to keep him in luxury at Harrow and Cambridge. Langley-Moore questions 19th-century biographer John Galt 's claim that she over-indulged in alcohol. Byron's mother-in-law, Judith Noel,

735-519: A duel; over time, in subsequent editions, it became a mark of prestige to be the target of Byron's pen. After his return from travels he entrusted R. C. Dallas, as his literary agent, with the publication of his poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage , which Byron thought to be of little account. The first two cantos of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage were published in 1812 and were received with critical acclaim. In Byron's own words, "I awoke one morning and found myself famous." He followed up this success with

840-565: A fever and died in Missolonghi on 19 April. His physician at the time, Julius van Millingen , son of Dutch–English archaeologist James Millingen , was unable to prevent his death. It has been said that if Byron had lived and had gone on to defeat the Ottomans, he might have been declared King of Greece . However, modern scholars have found such an outcome unlikely. The British historian David Brewer wrote that in one sense, Byron failed to persuade

945-559: A frontispiece designed by Edward Blore , which also carried a dedication, by Royal permission, to the Princess Royal, Princess Charlotte , to whom Nathan had given some singing lessons. To the 24 poems published by 1816 Nathan subsequently added six other poems in later editions, the last being "Bright be the place of thy soul", included in Nathan's Fugitive Pieces and Reminiscences of Lord Byron in 1829. The poems were not intended to have

1050-511: A house on the coast and had a schooner built. Byron decided to have his own yacht, and engaged Trelawny's friend, Captain Daniel Roberts , to design and construct the boat. Named the Bolivar , it was later sold to Charles John Gardiner, 1st Earl of Blessington , and Marguerite, Countess of Blessington , when Byron left for Greece in 1823. Byron attended the beachside cremation of Shelley, which

1155-515: A hymn, the traditional tunes are unusually few. Only four or five of them deserve to be called traditional. Of these the oldest appears to be a short melody of Spanish origin. The most common tune is attributed to the Russian cantor, Eliezar Mordecai Gerovitsch. Of similar construction is a melody of northern origin associated by English Jews with the penitential season. This melody is sometimes sung antiphonally , between Chazan and congregation, like

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1260-403: A large number of changes to the manuscript, and provided the reasoning for some of them. Dallas also stated that Byron had originally intended to prefix an argument to this poem, which Dallas quoted. Although it was published anonymously, that April R. C. Dallas wrote that "you are already pretty generally known to be the author". The work so upset some of his critics that they challenged Byron to

1365-545: A legal separation. Their separation was made legal in a private settlement in March 1816. The scandal of the separation, the rumours about Augusta, and ever-increasing debts forced him to leave England in April 1816, never to return. After this break-up of his domestic life, and by pressure on the part of his creditors, which led to the sale of his library, Byron left England, and never returned. (Despite his dying wishes, however, his body

1470-508: A letter: Lord Byron gets up at two. I get up, quite contrary to my usual custom ... at 12. After breakfast we sit talking till six. From six to eight we gallop through the pine forest which divide Ravenna from the sea; we then come home and dine, and sit up gossiping till six in the morning. I don't suppose this will kill me in a week or fortnight, but I shall not try it longer. Lord B.'s establishment consists, besides servants, of ten horses, eight enormous dogs, three monkeys, five cats, an eagle,

1575-659: A project he initiated of a grammar of Classical Armenian for English speakers, where he included quotations from classical and modern Armenian . Byron later helped to compile the English Armenian Dictionary ( Barraran angleren yev hayeren , 1821) and wrote the preface, in which he explained Armenian oppression by the Turkish pashas and the Persian satraps and the Armenian struggle of liberation. His two main translations are

1680-578: A religious message, nor were they written from a consistent perspective. In Thomas Ashton's analysis, "First Byron gave Nathan the secular love lyrics he had written in [...] 1814. Then, warming to the composer, he provided some vaguely Jewish poems. Finally, after [his] marriage [...] he sent Nathan poems dealing directly with Old Testament subjects." Byron wrote to Augusta that the Hebrew Melodies were written "partly from Job &c. & partly my own imagination". They reflected his general sympathy with

1785-550: A result, she fell even further into debt to support his demands. One of these loans enabled him to travel to Valenciennes , France, where he died of a "long & suffering illness" – probably tuberculosis – in 1791. When Byron's great-uncle, who was posthumously labelled the "wicked" Lord Byron , died on 21 May 1798, the 10-year-old became the sixth Baron Byron of Rochdale and inherited the ancestral home, Newstead Abbey , in Nottinghamshire. His mother took him to England, but

1890-464: A series of elegies, in his memory. In later years, he described the affair as "a violent, though pure love and passion". This statement, however, needs to be read in the context of hardening public attitudes toward homosexuality in England and the severe sanctions (including public hanging) imposed upon convicted or even suspected offenders. The liaison, on the other hand, may well have been "pure" out of respect for Edleston's innocence, in contrast to

1995-470: A shipwreck as a teenage midshipman, Byron's grandfather set a new speed record for circumnavigating the globe. After he became embroiled in a tempestuous voyage during the American War of Independence , he became nicknamed 'Foul-Weather Jack' Byron by the press. Byron's father had previously been somewhat scandalously married to Amelia Osborne, Marchioness of Carmarthen , with whom he was having an affair –

2100-399: A suitable marriage, considering – amongst others – Annabella Millbanke . However, in 1813 he met for the first time in four years his half-sister, Augusta Leigh . Rumours of incest surrounded the pair; Augusta's daughter Medora (b. 1814) was suspected to have been Byron's child. To escape from growing debts and rumours, Byron pressed in his determination to marry Annabella, who was said to be

2205-447: A trio, a recitative and an aria ), are considered to be influenced by the tradition of oratorio . In eight of the songs they discern specific 'Jewish' characteristics, either because the music seeks to evoke "the stereotypical figure of the suffering Jew", or because the melodic line and ' orientalist ' harmonies used by Nathan suggest the exoticism of his subject. In October 1814 Byron wrote to his fiancée Annabella Milbanke (whom he

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2310-526: Is He, beyond compare, Without division or ally, Without initial date or end, Omnipotent He rules on high. He is my God, my Saviour He, To whom I turn in sorrow's hour-- My banner proud, my refuge sure-- Who hears and answers with His power. Then in His hand myself I lay, And trusting sleep, and wake with cheer; My soul and body are His care; The Lord doth guard, I have no fear. Two 21st-century rhythmic translations appear to take inspiration from

2415-593: Is composed of two segments of one yated and 2 tenu'ot, which indeed makes 8 syllables. Adon Olam is one of the most familiar hymns in the whole range of the Jewish liturgy and is sung in many communities at the end of the Additional Service (Musaf) for Shabbat (Sabbath) and Yom Tov (Festival). In the Roman Machzor it is placed at the end of Sabbath service and sung together with Yigdal. According to Seligman Baer ,

2520-573: Is known, Who was, and is, and still will be, In endless glory reign alone. He is the King of kings, and none Can share His wisdom, power and might; The Lord our God, the Lord is One, In love and mercy infinite. My God and my Redeemer He, My Rock in sorrow's darkest day; A Help and Refuge unto me, My Portion sure, my Shield and Stay. My soul unto His care divine Do I commend; I will not fear: My body with it I resign, Waking or sleeping, God

2625-719: Is near. A rhythmic English version which adheres much more closely to the Hebrew text is attributed to Frederick de Sola Mendes ; it appears in the entry Adon Olam in The Jewish Encyclopedia of 1906 and in the Union Hymnal of 1914. The Lord of all, who reigned supreme Ere first creation's form was framed; When all was finished by His will His name Almighty was proclaimed. When this, our world, shall be no more, In majesty He still shall reign, Who was, Who is, Who will for aye In endless glory still remain. Alone

2730-644: Is no solid evidence for this, and the regular metric structure does not seem to accord with his other compositions. John Rayner , in his notes to the Siddur Lev Chadash, suggests it was written in the thirteenth or fourteenth century in Spain, noting its absence from the prayer book Sefer Abudarham c. 1340. It has also been attributed to Hai Gaon (939–1038) and even to the Talmudic sage Yohanan ben Zakkai . Although its diction indicates antiquity, it did not become part of

2835-721: The Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians , two chapters of Movses Khorenatsi 's History of Armenia , and sections of Nerses of Lambron 's Orations . He also translated into English those sections of the Armenian Bible that are not present in the English Bible. His fascination was so great that he even considered using the Armenian version of the story of Cain for his play of the same name . Byron's interest in Armenian studies contributed to

2940-701: The Gentleman's Magazine called the verses "elegant", and they were also approved by the Edinburgh Review and the Ladies' Monthly Museum . The Christian Observer in August 1815 wrote "The present state of the Jewish people — expatriated — dispersed — trodden down — contemned — afforded the noble poet a very fine subject; and [...] he has not neglected to avail himself of it." The poems became popular not only in England but also throughout Europe. In Russia translations of some of

3045-1102: The Levant ; he had read about the Ottoman and Persian lands as a child, was attracted to Islam (especially Sufi mysticism ), and later wrote, "With these countries, and events connected with them, all my really poetical feelings begin and end." Byron began his trip in Portugal , from where he wrote a letter to his friend Mr Hodgson in which he describes what he had learned of the Portuguese language: mainly swear words and insults. Byron particularly enjoyed his stay in Sintra , which he later described in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage as "glorious Eden". From Lisbon he travelled overland to Seville , Jerez de la Frontera , Cádiz , and Gibraltar , and from there by sea to Sardinia, Malta , Albania and Greece . The purpose of Byron's and Hobhouse's travel to Albania

3150-544: The Ravenna Diary and My Dictionary and Recollections . Around this time he received visits from Percy Bysshe Shelley , as well as from Thomas Moore , to whom he confided his autobiography or "life and adventures", which Moore, Hobhouse, and Byron's publisher, John Murray , burned in 1824, a month after Byron's death. Of Byron's lifestyle in Ravenna we know more from Shelley, who documented some of its more colourful aspects in

3255-521: The Tuscan city of Pisa , to which Teresa had also relocated. From 1821 to 1822, Byron finished Cantos 6–12 of Don Juan at Pisa, and in the same year he joined with Leigh Hunt and Shelley in starting a short-lived newspaper, The Liberal , in whose first number The Vision of Judgment appeared. For the first time since his arrival in Italy, Byron found himself tempted to give dinner parties; his guests included

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3360-572: The West London Synagogue , which has become a classic among the British Jews, having been long ago adopted from the "reform" into the "orthodox" congregations, of England and its colonies. This song is often sung to many different tunes on account of its meter ( Iambic tetrameter ). Many synagogues like to use "seasonal" tunes, for instance, Shabbat before Hanukkah , they might do it to Ma'oz Tzur . In Hebrew schools and Jewish summer camps,

3465-400: The "Melodies". The first volume of twelve musical settings by Nathan for voice and piano was published in April 1815 by Nathan himself. In May of the same year Byron's complete lyrics were published as a book of poems by John Murray , and an edition containing 24 musical settings was published by Nathan in April 1816. This edition, which sold for a guinea , named Braham as a joint-composer in

3570-403: The (probably) more sexually overt relations experienced at Harrow School. The poem "The Cornelian" was written about the cornelian that Byron had received from Edleston. Byron spent three years at Trinity College, engaging in boxing, horse riding, gambling, and sexual escapades. While at Cambridge , he also formed lifelong friendships with men such as John Cam Hobhouse , who initiated him into

3675-505: The 21-year-old Countess Guiccioli , who found her first love in Byron; he asked her to elope with him. After considering migrating to Venezuela or to the Cape Colony , Byron finally decided to leave Venice for Ravenna . Because of his love for the local aristocratic, young, newly married Teresa Guiccioli, Byron lived in Ravenna from 1819 to 1821. Here he continued Don Juan and wrote

3780-531: The Abbey was in a state of disrepair and, rather than live there, she decided to lease it to Lord Grey de Ruthyn , among others, during Byron's adolescence. Described as "a woman without judgment or self-command", Catherine either spoiled and indulged her son or vexed him with her capricious stubbornness. Her drinking disgusted him and he often mocked her for being short and corpulent, which made it difficult for her to catch him to discipline him. Byron had been born with

3885-465: The Adon Olam hymn is sometimes set, for fun, to secular tunes like " Yankee Doodle " or " Jamaica Farewell ". In 1976, Uzi Hitman created a more upbeat tune for the 8th Annual Hasidic Song Festival and has become popular when sung outside traditional liturgical settings. Throughout the years there have been several English translations which preserve the original Hebrew meter and rhyming pattern, allowing

3990-552: The Cambridge Whig Club, which endorsed liberal politics, and Francis Hodgson , a Fellow at King's College, with whom he corresponded on literary and other matters until the end of his life. While not at school or college, Byron lived at his mother's residence, Burgage Manor in Southwell, Nottinghamshire . While there, he cultivated friendships with Elizabeth Bridget Pigot and her brother John, with whom he staged two plays for

4095-468: The German rite, it is recited daily at the beginning of morning services. Because of this solemn association, and on account of its opening and closing sentiments, the hymn has also been selected for (tuneless) reading in the chamber of the dying, and in some congregations it is recited (subdued and tuneless) in the synagogue as a means of reporting a death in the community. It is likewise recited or chanted at

4200-745: The Greek cause. In today's money, Byron would have been a millionaire many times over. News that a fabulously wealthy British aristocrat, known for his financial generosity, had arrived in Greece made Byron the object of much solicitation in that desperately poor country. Byron wrote to his business agent in England, "I should not like to give the Greeks but a half helping hand", saying he would have wanted to spend his entire fortune on Greek freedom. Byron found himself besieged by various people, both Greek and foreign, who tried to persuade him to open his pocketbook for support. By

4305-446: The Hon. Lady Milbanke, died in 1822, and her will required that he change his surname to "Noel" in order to inherit half of her estate. He accordingly obtained a Royal Warrant , enabling him to "take and use the surname of Noel only" and to "subscribe the said surname of Noel before all titles of honour". From that point, he signed himself "Noel Byron" (the usual signature of a peer being merely

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4410-642: The John Murray archive contain evidence of a previously unremarked if short-lived romantic relationship with a younger boy at Harrow, John Thomas Claridge . In the following autumn he entered Trinity College, Cambridge , where he met and formed a close friendship with the younger John Edleston. About his "protégé" he wrote, "He has been my almost constant associate since October, 1805, when I entered Trinity College. His voice first attracted my attention, his countenance fixed it, and his manners attached me to him for ever." After Edleston's death, Byron composed Thyrza ,

4515-522: The Last Hill" they classify as hymns . Five, including "The Destruction of Sennacherib" are executed as 'martial songs'. A third category, the largest (14 songs) they consider derived from German and Italian styles, with "My Soul is Dark" and its Italian ornamentation an example of the latter, and "My Soul is Dark" based on the German lieder style. Two of the songs in this category, "Thou whose spell" and "A Spirit Pass'd" (whose tripartite structure includes

4620-464: The Mediterranean. The Hercules was aged 37 when, on 21 September 1852, she went aground near Hartlepool , 25 miles south of Sunderland , the place where her keel had been laid in 1815. Byron's "keel was laid" nine months before his official birth date, 22 January 1788. Therefore in ship years, he was also 37 when he died in Missolonghi. Byron initially stayed on the island of Kefalonia , where he

4725-569: The Ottoman captain mistook Byron's boat for a fireship. To avoid the Ottoman Navy, which he encountered several times on his voyage, Byron was forced to take a roundabout route and only reached Missolonghi on 5 January 1824. After arriving in Missolonghi , Byron joined forces with Alexandros Mavrokordatos , a Greek politician with military power. Byron moved to the second floor of a two-story house and

4830-632: The Ottomans. At the same time, other leaders of the Greek factions like Petrobey Mavromichalis and Theodoros Kolokotronis wrote letters to Byron telling him to disregard all of the Roumeliot leaders and to come to their respective areas in the Peloponnese. This drove Byron to distraction; he complained that the Greeks were hopelessly disunited and spent more time feuding with each other than trying to win independence. Byron's friend Edward John Trelawny had aligned himself with Androutsos, who ruled Athens, and

4935-482: The Romagna under the condition that his daughter return to him, without Byron. At the same time that the philhellene, Edward Blaquiere, was attempting to recruit him, Byron was confused as to what he was supposed to do in Greece, writing: "Blaquiere seemed to think that I might be of some use—even here ;—though what he did not exactly specify". With the assistance of his banker and Captain Daniel Roberts , Byron chartered

5040-513: The Sephardic version containing added lines (two after line 6, one after line 8, and two after line 10). In some traditions the hymn comprises 6 stanzas, but the fourth stanza (which can be seen as an amplification of the third) is omitted by the Ashkenazim. In others it has 15 lines; in yet others it has 16 lines. It is strictly metrical , written in lines of eight syllables; more precisely, each line

5145-482: The Shelleys, Edward Ellerker Williams , Thomas Medwin , John Taaffe, and Edward John Trelawny ; and "never", as Shelley said, "did he display himself to more advantage than on these occasions; being at once polite and cordial, full of social hilarity and the most perfect good humour; never diverging into ungraceful merriment, and yet keeping up the spirit of liveliness throughout the evening." Shelley and Williams rented

5250-520: The Souliotes as he was unhappy with Mavrokordatos's leadership, which led to a brief bout of inter-Greek fighting before Karaiskakis was chased away by 6 April. When the famous Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen heard about Byron's heroics in Greece, he voluntarily resculpted his earlier bust of Byron in Greek marble. Mavrokordatos and Byron planned to attack the Turkish-held fortress of Lepanto , at

5355-471: The Spanish tune given above it. The best known of the other traditional antiphonal settings exists in two or three forms, the oldest of which appears to be the one given below (C). The most common tune is attributed to the Russian cantor, Eliezar Mordecai Gerovitsch. Every one of the synagogal composers of the 19th century has written several settings for "Adon Olam". Most of them—following the earlier practise of

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5460-680: The Suliotes for the good of Greece—and their own—I have come to the following resolution—I will have nothing more to do with the Suliotes—they may go to the Turks or the devil...they may cut me into more pieces than they have dissensions among them, sooner than change my resolution". At the same time, Guiccioli's brother, Pietro Gamba, who had followed Byron to Greece, exasperated Byron with his incompetence as he continually made expensive mistakes. For example, when asked to buy some cloth from Corfu, Gamba ordered

5565-614: The Temple, many of them taken from European folk-tunes including Lutheran hymns which were adapted by Jewish congregations in Central Europe. Nathan's settings are of varying quality: for example "She Walks in Beauty" fits well with the synagogue hymn Adon Olam , whilst "On Jordan's Banks" is forced to fit the hymn Ma'oz Tzur by clumsily altering the natural stresses on the words. Burwick and Douglass identify four musical styles adopted by Nathan in his settings. "On Jordan's Banks" and "From

5670-573: The above works: the rhythmic translation in the Koren Sacks Siddur of 2009 quotes heavily from the initial stanzas of the version in Prayers, Psalms and Hymns for the Use of Jewish Children ; the unsigned rhythmic translation in the machzor Mishkan HaNefesh of 2015 has a few verses which echo the version of de Sola Mendes. [REDACTED]  This article incorporates text from a publication now in

5775-476: The ancestry he claimed for them). He initially approached Walter Scott , before writing to Byron in 1814. Eventually Byron was encouraged by his friend Douglas Kinnaird to take up Nathan's proposal. Many of the poems were written during the period of Byron's sessions with Nathan between October 1814 and February 1815; a few, including " She Walks in Beauty " and "I speak not – I trace not – I breathe not", predate their meeting. Nathan's motives were commercial – he

5880-643: The beginning or the close of the service. According to the custom of the Sephardim and in British synagogues generally, it is sung by the congregation at the close of Sabbath and festival morning services , and among the Ashkenazi Jews it sometimes takes the place of the hymn Yigdal at the close of the maariv service on these occasions, while both hymns are sometimes chanted on the Eve of Yom Kippur ( Kol Nidre ). In

5985-635: The birth of their illegitimate child Allegra , who died at the age of 5 under the care of Byron later in life. Several times Byron went to see Germaine de Staël and her Coppet group , which turned out to be a valid intellectual and emotional support to Byron at the time. Kept indoors at the Villa Diodati by the "incessant rain" of "that wet, ungenial summer" over three days in June, the five turned to reading fantastical stories, including Fantasmagoriana , and then devising their own tales. Mary Shelley produced what would become Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus , and Polidori produced The Vampyre ,

6090-494: The brig Hercules to take him to Greece. When Byron left Genoa, it caused "passionate grief" from Guiccioli, who wept openly as he sailed away. The Hercules was forced to return to port shortly afterwards. When it set sail for the final time, Guiccioli had already left Genoa. On 16 July, Byron left Genoa, arriving at Kefalonia in the Ionian Islands on 4 August. His voyage is covered in detail in Donald Prell 's Sailing with Byron from Genoa to Cephalonia . Prell also wrote of

6195-423: The butt of their humour. The Napoleonic Wars forced Byron to avoid touring in most of Europe; he instead turned to the Mediterranean . His journey enabled him to avoid his creditors and to meet up with a former love, Mary Chaworth (the subject of his poem "To a Lady: On Being Asked My Reason for Quitting England in the Spring"). Another reason for choosing to visit the Mediterranean was probably his curiosity about

6300-441: The city, Byron and Lieutenant Ekenhead, of Salsette ' s Marines, swam the Hellespont . Byron commemorated this feat in the second canto of Don Juan . He returned to England from Malta in July 1811 aboard HMS  Volage . After the publication of the first two cantos of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812), Byron became a celebrity. "He rapidly became the most brilliant star in the dazzling world of Regency London. He

6405-429: The commencement of the daily early morning prayer, that its utterance may help to attune the mind of the worshiper to reverential awe. When it is sung at the end of the service, the congregation sits while singing it, as a demonstration that they are not eager to leave the house of prayer but were willing to stay and continue praying (by starting again at the beginning of the day's prayers). For so widespread and beloved

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6510-441: The continental synagogues during the modern period (see Choir )—have attempted more or less elaborately polyphonic compositions. But the absurdity of treating an essentially congregational hymn so as to render congregational singing of it impossible is latterly becoming recognized, and many tunes in true hymn form have been more recently composed. Special mention should be made of the setting written by Simon W. Waley (1827–1876) for

6615-421: The downtrodden: as he once wrote, "The Greeks [...] have as small a chance of redemption from the Turks as the Jews have from mankind in general." Thomas Ashton writes "Byron put together nationalism and Jews to write poems about Jewish nationalism, but in those poems he joined Jewish nationalism and a Calvinistically inclined understanding of the Old Testament to create metaphors of man and man's condition [..] In

6720-455: The end of March 1824, the so-called "Byron brigade" of 30 philhellene officers and about 200 men had been formed, paid for entirely by Byron. Leadership of the Greek cause in the Roumeli region was divided between two rival leaders: a former Klepht (bandit), Odysseas Androutsos ; and a wealthy Phanariot Prince, Alexandros Mavrokordatos . Byron used his prestige to attempt to persuade the two rival leaders to come together to focus on defeating

6825-437: The entertainment of the community. During this time, with the help of Elizabeth Pigot, who copied many of his rough drafts, he was encouraged to write his first volumes of poetry. Fugitive Pieces was printed by Ridge of Newark, which contained poems written when Byron was only 17. However, it was promptly recalled and burned on the advice of his friend the Reverend J. T. Becher, on account of its more amorous verses, particularly

6930-404: The hymn seems to have been intended to be recited before going to sleep, as it closes with the words: "Into His hand I commit my spirit when I fall asleep, and I shall awake." There is a tradition of reciting it each night at bedtime, and also on the deathbed. It may be, however, that the beauty and grandeur of the hymn recommended its use in the liturgy, and that it was chanted indiscriminately at

7035-414: The hymn to be sung to the same tunes as the original. A rhythmic English version in the book Prayers, Psalms and Hymns for the Use of Jewish Children of 1905 only loosely follows the Hebrew text. Lord of the Universe, who made The world and every living thing, When first all earth His will obeyed, Then was His name proclaimed as King. And at the end of days will He, To whom nor change nor time

7140-431: The likely heiress of a rich uncle. They married on 2 January 1815, and their daughter, Ada , was born in December of that year. However, Byron's continuing obsession with Augusta Leigh (and his continuing sexual escapades with actresses such as Charlotte Mardyn and others) made their marital life a misery. Annabella considered Byron insane, and in January 1816 she left him, taking their daughter, and began proceedings for

7245-448: The morning liturgy until the 15th century. The text of Adon Olam used in Ashkenazic liturgy contains 5 stanzas in 10 lines, as follows: b'ṭerem kol yeṣir niv'ra Azai melekh sh'mo niqra L'vado yimlokh nora W'hu yih'yeh b'thif'arah L'ham'shil lo l'haḥbbirah W'lo ha'3oz w'hammis'rah W'ṣur ḥevli b'3eit ṣarah m'nath kosi b'yom 'eqra b'3et 'iyyshan w'a'3ira Adonai li w'lo 'ira There are varying texts in

7350-439: The mouth of the Gulf of Corinth . Byron employed a fire master to prepare artillery, and he took part of the rebel army under his own command despite his lack of military experience. Before the expedition could sail, on 15 February 1824, he fell ill, and bloodletting weakened him further. He made a partial recovery, but in early April he caught a cold; the therapeutic bleeding insisted on by his doctors exacerbated it. He contracted

7455-505: The mutinous Albanian officers who were offering to surrender Navpaktos to Byron and arranged to have some of the arrears paid out to the rest of the garrison. Byron never led the attack on Navpaktos because the Souliotes kept demanding that Byron pay them more and more money before they would march; Byron grew tired of their blackmail and sent them all home on 15 February 1824. Byron wrote in a note to himself: "Having tried in vain at every expense, considerable trouble—and some danger to unite

7560-477: The name of the peerage, in this case simply "Byron"). Some have speculated that he did this so that his initials would read "N.B.", mimicking those of his hero, Napoleon Bonaparte . Lady Byron eventually succeeded to the Barony of Wentworth , becoming "Lady Wentworth". Byron received his early formal education at Aberdeen Grammar School in 1798 until his move back to England as a 10-year-old. In August 1799 he entered

7665-762: The night in his gondola ; when he asked her to leave the house, she threw herself into the Venetian canal. In 1816, Byron visited San Lazzaro degli Armeni in Venice, where he acquainted himself with Armenian culture with the help of the monks belonging to the Mechitarist Order . With the help of Father Pascal Aucher (Harutiun Avkerian), he learned the Armenian language and attended many seminars about language and history. He co-authored Grammar English and Armenian in 1817, an English textbook written by Aucher and corrected by Byron, and A Grammar Armenian and English in 1819,

7770-402: The plight of the exiled Jews, Byron found man's plight, and the tears he shed for fallen nationhood were shed for fallen man as well." Not all of the music provided by Nathan can be traced to synagogue melodies; of the first book of twelve, two ("I saw thee weep" and "It is the hour") seem to have been composed by Nathan. Those that are from synagogue melodies are far more recent than the time of

7875-519: The poem To Mary . Hours of Idleness , a collection of many of the previous poems, along with more recent compositions, was the culminating book. The savage, anonymous criticism it received (now known to be the work of Henry Peter Brougham ) in the Edinburgh Review prompted Byron to compose his first major satire, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809). Byron put it into the hands of his relative R. C. Dallas , and asked him to "...get it published without his name." Alexander Dallas suggested

7980-582: The poem's last two cantos, as well as four equally celebrated "Oriental Tales": The Giaour , The Bride of Abydos , The Corsair , and Lara . About the same time, he began his intimacy with his future biographer, Thomas Moore . Byron racked up numerous debts as a young man, owing to what his mother termed a "reckless disregard for money". She lived at Newstead during this time, in fear of her son's creditors. He had planned to spend some time in 1808 cruising with his cousin George Bettesworth , who

8085-559: The poems were made by Mikhail Lermontov and others. The German poet Heinrich Heine wrote his Hebraïscher Melodien (named as a tribute to Byron's work) as the last section of his 1851 collection, Romanzero . Many composers wrote settings of translations of Byron's words, including Felix Mendelssohn , Fanny Mendelssohn , Robert Schumann , Max Bruch , Mily Balakirev and Modest Musorgsky . Notes Sources George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron , FRS (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824)

8190-615: The press reported that her heart had been broken out of remorse for leaving her husband. Much later, 19th-century sources blamed Jack's own "brutal and vicious" treatment of her. Jack would then marry Catherine Gordon of Gight on 13 May 1785, by all accounts only for her fortune. To claim his second wife's estate in Scotland, Byron's father took the additional surname "Gordon", becoming "John Byron Gordon", and occasionally styled himself "John Byron Gordon of Gight ". Byron's mother had to sell her land and title to pay her new husband's debts, and in

8295-684: The progenitor of the Romantic vampire genre . The Vampyre was inspired by a fragmentary story of Byron, " A Fragment ". Byron's story fragment was published as a postscript to Mazeppa ; he also wrote the third canto of Childe Harold . Byron wintered in Venice , pausing in his travels when he fell in love with Marianna Segati, in whose Venice house he was lodging, and who was soon replaced by 22-year-old Margarita Cogni; both women were married. Cogni could not read or write, and she left her husband to move in with Byron. Their fighting often caused Byron to spend

8400-435: The rival Greek factions to unite, won no victories and was successful only in the humanitarian sphere, using his great wealth to help the victims of the war, Christian and Muslim, but this did not affect the outcome of the Greek war of independence. Adon Olam Its authorship and origin are uncertain. It is sometimes attributed to Solomon ibn Gabirol (1021–1058 CE ), who is known for his Hebrew poetry, although there

8505-482: The school of Dr. William Glennie , in Dulwich . Placed under the care of a Dr. Bailey, he was encouraged to exercise in moderation but could not restrain himself from "violent" bouts of activity in an attempt to compensate for his deformed foot. His mother interfered with his studies, often withdrawing him from school, which arguably contributed to his lack of self-discipline and his neglect of his classical studies. Byron

8610-610: The space of two years, the large estate, worth some £23,500, had been squandered, leaving the former heiress with an annual income in trust of only £150. In a move to avoid his creditors, Catherine accompanied her husband to France in 1786, but returned to England at the end of 1787 to give birth to her son. Byron was born in January 1788, and christened at St Marylebone Parish Church . His father appears to have wished to call his son 'William', but as he remained absent, Byron's mother named him after her own father, George Gordon of Gight, who

8715-548: The spread and development of that discipline. His profound lyricism and ideological courage have inspired many Armenian poets, the likes of Ghevond Alishan , Smbat Shahaziz , Hovhannes Tumanyan , Ruben Vorberian, and others. In 1817, he journeyed to Rome . On returning to Venice, he wrote the fourth canto of Childe Harold . About the same time, he sold Newstead Abbey and published Manfred , Cain , and The Deformed Transformed . The first five cantos of Don Juan were written between 1818 and 1820. During this period he met

8820-585: The synagogue." The Courier published parodies of some of the lyrics as English Melodies . These included a version of The Destruction of Sennacherib adapted to a Parliamentary vote ("Oh! Tierney came down like a wolf on the fold / And his phalanx of voters was boasting and bold [...]"), and a personal attack on the poet based on "Sun of the Sleepless": "Son of the faithless! melancholy rat!/ Whose circling sleeve still polishes thy hat / Offering at once thyself and it to sell [...]". Many reviews were however positive;

8925-427: The wedding took place just weeks after her divorce from her husband, and she was around eight months pregnant. The marriage was not a happy one, and their first two children – Sophia Georgina, and an unnamed boy – died in infancy. Amelia herself died in 1784 almost exactly a year after the birth of their third child, the poet's half-sister Augusta Mary . Though Amelia died from a wasting illness, probably tuberculosis,

9030-463: The worst of all maladies in my opinion. In short, the boy is distractedly in love with Miss Chaworth." In Byron's later memoirs , "Mary Chaworth is portrayed as the first object of his adult sexual feelings." Byron finally returned in January 1804, to a more settled period, which saw the formation of a circle of emotional involvements with other Harrow boys, which he recalled with great vividness: "My school friendships were with me passions (for I

9135-472: The wrong cloth in excess, causing the bill to be 10 times higher than what Byron wanted. Byron wrote about his right-hand man: "Gamba—who is anything but lucky —had something to do with it—and as usual—the moment he had—matters went wrong". To help raise money for the revolution, Byron sold his estate in England, Rochdale Manor, which raised some £11,250. This led Byron to estimate that he now had some £20,000 at his disposal, all of which he planned to spend on

9240-612: Was a British poet and peer . He is one of the major figures of the Romantic movement , and is regarded as being among the greatest of British poets. Among his best-known works are the lengthy narratives Don Juan and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage ; many of his shorter lyrics in Hebrew Melodies also became popular. Byron was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge , before he travelled extensively in Europe. He lived for seven years in Italy, in Venice , Ravenna , and Pisa after he

9345-514: Was a descendant of James I of Scotland and who had died by suicide some years earlier, in 1779. Byron's mother moved back to Aberdeenshire in 1790, and Byron spent part of his childhood there. His father soon joined them in their lodgings in Queen Street, but the couple quickly separated. Catherine regularly experienced mood swings and bouts of melancholy, which could be partly explained by her husband's continuously borrowing money from her. As

9450-463: Was a founding figure in the field of computer programming based on her notes for Charles Babbage 's Analytical Engine . Byron's extramarital children include Allegra Byron , who died in childhood, and possibly Elizabeth Medora Leigh , daughter of his half-sister Augusta Leigh. George Gordon Byron was born on 22 January 1788, on Holles Street in London; his birthplace is now supposedly occupied by

9555-557: Was also Jewish) to lend his name to the title page in return for 50% of any profits. Byron's motives for cooperating are less clear, but he seems to have been genuinely sympathetic to the cause of the Jews and he patronizingly enjoyed Nathan's company as a sort of court jester . Byron gave the copyright of the poems to Nathan, and also left him a £50 note when the scandal of the poet's relationship with his half-sister Augusta caused him to flee England in 1816 – an event which also boosted sales of

9660-411: Was always violent)". The most enduring of those was with John FitzGibbon, 2nd Earl of Clare —four years Byron's junior—whom he was to meet again unexpectedly many years later, in 1821, in Italy. His nostalgic poems about his Harrow friendships, Childish Recollections (1806), express a prescient "consciousness of sexual differences that may in the end make England untenable to him." Letters to Byron in

9765-420: Was besieged by agents of the rival Greek factions, all of whom wanted to recruit Byron for their own cause. The Ionian islands, of which Kefalonia is one, were under British rule until 1864. Byron spent £4,000 of his own money to refit the Greek fleet. When Byron travelled to the mainland of Greece on the night of 28 December 1823, Byron's ship was surprised by an Ottoman warship, which did not attack his ship, as

9870-517: Was captain of the 32-gun frigate HMS Tartar , but Bettesworth's death at the Battle of Alvøen in May 1808 made that impossible. From 1809 to 1811, Byron went on the Grand Tour , then a customary part of the education of young noblemen. He travelled with Hobhouse for the first year, and his entourage of servants included Byron's trustworthy valet, William Fletcher . Hobhouse and Byron often made Fletcher

9975-597: Was forced to flee England due to threats of lynching . During his stay in Italy, he would frequently visit his friend and fellow poet Percy Bysshe Shelley . Later in life, Byron joined the Greek War of Independence to fight the Ottoman Empire , for which Greeks revere him as a folk hero . He died leading a campaign in 1824, at the age of 36, from a fever contracted after the first and second sieges of Missolonghi. His one child conceived within marriage, Ada Lovelace ,

10080-478: Was forced to spend much of his time dealing with unruly Souliotes who demanded that Byron pay them the back-pay owed to them by the Greek government. Byron gave the Souliotes some £6,000. Byron was supposed to lead an attack on the Ottoman fortress of Navpaktos, whose Albanian garrison were unhappy due to arrears in pay, and who offered to put up only token resistance if Byron was willing to bribe them into surrendering. However, Ottoman commander Yussuf Pasha executed

10185-480: Was hoping to cash in on a fashion for exotic folk music . (A critical review of the first edition, mocking the concept, commented, "If we should now see the melodies of Kamschatska , or of Madagascar , or of the Hottentots advertised, [...] we should know what to expect: – minstrels, and languishing maidens, the bright tear, the dark blue eye [...]") To this end Nathan persuaded the well-known singer John Braham (who

10290-460: Was living in Genoa in 1823, when, growing bored with his life there, he accepted overtures for his support from representatives of the Greek independence movement from the Ottoman Empire . At first, Byron did not wish to leave his 22-year-old mistress, Countess Teresa Guiccioli, who had abandoned her husband to live with him. But ultimately Guiccioli's father, Count Gamba, was allowed to leave his exile in

10395-417: Was now pressing for Byron to break with Mavrokordatos in favour of backing the rival Androutsos. Androutsos, having won over Trelawny to his cause, was now anxious to persuade Byron to put his wealth behind his claim to be the leader of Greece. Byron wrote with disgust about how one of the Greek captains, former Klepht Georgios Karaiskakis , attacked Missolonghi on 3 April 1824 with some 150 men supported by

10500-617: Was orchestrated by Trelawny after Williams and Shelley drowned in a boating accident on 8 July 1822. His last Italian home was in Genoa . While living there he was accompanied by the Countess Guiccioli, and the Blessingtons. Lady Blessington based much of the material in her book, Conversations with Lord Byron , on the time spent together there. This book became an important biographical text about Byron's life just prior to his death. Byron

10605-580: Was returned for burial in England.) He journeyed through Belgium and continued up the Rhine river. In the summer of 1816 he settled at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva , Switzerland, with his personal physician, John William Polidori . There Byron befriended the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and author Mary Godwin , Shelley's future wife. He was also joined by Mary's stepsister, Claire Clairmont , with whom he'd had an affair in London, which subsequently resulted in

10710-581: Was sent to Harrow School in 1801, and remained there until July 1805. An undistinguished student and an unskilled cricketer, he nevertheless represented the school during the first Eton v Harrow cricket match at Lord's in 1805. His lack of moderation was not restricted to physical exercise. Byron fell in love with Mary Chaworth, whom he met while at school, and she was the reason he refused to return to Harrow in September 1803. His mother wrote, "He has no indisposition that I know of but love, desperate love,

10815-695: Was sought after at every society venue, elected to several exclusive clubs, and frequented the most fashionable London drawing-rooms." During this period in England he produced many works, including The Giaour , The Bride of Abydos (1813), Parisina , and The Siege of Corinth (1815). On the initiative of the composer Isaac Nathan , he produced in 1814–1815 the Hebrew Melodies (including what became some of his best-known lyrics, such as " She Walks in Beauty " and " The Destruction of Sennacherib "). Involved at first in an affair with Lady Caroline Lamb (who called him "mad, bad and dangerous to know") and with other lovers and also pressed by debt, he began to seek

10920-573: Was to marry in January 1815, and was a strict Christian) on his writing on this unlikely topic. "It is odd enough that this should have fallen to my lot — who have been abused as an "infidel" — Augusta says they will call me a Jew next" — and indeed that came to pass in street ballads; Byron was also the butt of quips from reviewers of the Melodies such as "A young Lord is seldom the better for meddling with Jews". The British Review complained that "Lord Byron [...] may now be considered as poet laureate to

11025-472: Was to meet Ali Pasha of Ioannina and to see the country that was, until then, mostly unknown in Britain. In Athens in 1810, Byron wrote " Maid of Athens, ere we part " for a 12-year-old girl, Teresa Makri (1798–1875). Byron and Hobhouse made their way to Smyrna , where they cadged a ride to Constantinople on HMS Salsette . On 3 May 1810, while Salsette was anchored awaiting Ottoman permission to dock at

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