Word: monsters
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...pipes: "What a pretty boy Byron is! What a pity he has such a leg!" The little boy's eyes blaze. Striking at her with a little whip, he cries furiously: "Dinna speak of it!" But when he meets another small boy with a deformed foot, the little monster's rage turns to laughter: "Come and see the twa laddies with the twa clubfeet going up the Broadstreet!" This boyish portrait soon gives way to a stranger, far more puzzling picture. The teachings of Calvin and John Knox add another dimension to Byron's thoughts, another torment...
While washing his hands and singing a gay Neapolitan air, he stopped and remarked casually: "My father cut his throat," then went back to singing. Byron was word-perfect in his monster role before he was out of his teens. Henceforth, the clubfoot and the sensitive heart hid themselves in the disguise of a cold, cloven-hoofed devil. On his brow, at a moment's notice, would appear "that singular scowl" which caused one acquaintance to exclaim that he "had never seen a man with such a Cain-like mark on the forehead." A Pair of Stays. A Miss...
Were this the sum total of Byron's character, it would present no puzzle: any zoo attendant could tumble to it. In fact the monster was a mere segment of it. Women rarely saw the better side of Byron, but to his men friends, the devilish Byron seemed an absurd joke, a mere poetic fantasy. They sat at his feet, bowed to his charm, reveled in the humor and radiance he shed. Their descriptions of him are mostly levelheaded and carry a ring of conviction. Wrote Sir Walter Scott: "I found Lord Byron in the highest degree courteous...
Actress Fanny Kelly was another lady who got a sharp comeuppance when she crossed swords with the monster. "Being offended" with him, she said: "You know, my Lord, I can act men's parts. I have a great mind to put on breeches and demand satisfaction [i.e., fight a duel with you]." To which his lordship replied coarsely: "Then, Miss Kelly, I should be very happy to pull off mine and give you satisfaction...
...that he had married only to beget an heir to his title. "I mean to live, like a worm of the earth, to propagate my kind, and then I shall put an end to my existence." After one year of this satanic bliss, Lady Byron extricated herself from the monster's clutches. Byron sailed away to Europe; he never saw England again...