BYRON, LORD (GEORGE GORDEN) (1788-1824), British Poet

Byron is best remembered as the leading poet of the Romantic period. His epic-satire Don Juan is considered his masterpiece; but he is also known for his Childe Harold, and Manfred. Byron's life was filled with lovers of both sexes. When he was seventeen and a student at Trinity College, he fell in love with John Eddleston, a choirboy of the same age. Byron wrote that "I certainly love him more than any human being, and neither time nor distance have the least effect on my (in general) changeable disposition." Some biographers have dismissed this as a platonic infatuation, but there is less uncertainty surrounding Byron's 1811 relationship with Nicolo Giraud, a youth of mixed French-Greek blood whom Byron described as "the most beautiful being I have ever beheld." They were inseparable for a time, and Byron is said to have consulted a doctor about relaxation of the sphincter muscle which was giving Giraud trouble. Byron's many other liaisons included one with his half-sister Augusta; when this relationship was criticized as incestuous, he explained that "I could love anything on earth that appeared to wish it." He married in 1815 but separated a year later; relationships with a beautiful Italian noblewomen, then with another handsome Greek youth, followed. Parts of Byron's life will remain unknown; although he wrote his memoirs and entrusted them to his friend Thomas Moore, they were considered too scandalous for publication after his death and were burned.