拜伦的英文生平介绍

拜伦的英文生平介绍
拜伦的英文生平介绍

拜伦的英文生平介绍
George Gordon Byron 乔治·戈登·拜伦

More than any other poet Lord Byron has been identified with his own heroes —— with Childe Harold, the romantic traveller； with Manfred, the outcast from society； with Don Juan, the cynical, heartless lover. Although Byron did use his own life as the material for much of his poetry, it is by no means purely autobiographical. It is, however, in his long poems that Byron's genius most truly resides rather than in the lyrics which usually represent him in selections.
Byron was born into an aristocratic family of doubtful reputation. His father died of drink and debauchery when Byron was 3, and when he was 10 his great-uncle —— the 'wicked’ Lord Byron —— also died. Byron inherited the title, a vast house called Newstead Abbey, and estates already mortgaged or in decay.
Byron's father, by his first marriage, had a daughter, Augusta, Byron's half-sister. His father's second wife, Byron's own mother, was a proud, irascible, Calvinistic Scotswoman named Catherine Gordon of Gight. He was born with a malformed foot —— a disability which tortured him with self-consciousness in his youth. He went to Harrow and to Trinity College, Cambridge, where, amongst other eccentricities, he kept a bear. While an undergraduate he published his first book of poems. Hours of Idleness. The adverse criticism it deservedly got stung Byron not to despair but to revenge, and he replied with a satire in the manner of Pope called English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. After Cambridge, Byron went on the grand tour of Europe, traditional for men of his education； but owing to the Napoleonic Wars, his route took him, not overland, as was usual by way of Paris to Rome, but by sea to Lisbon, Spain, and the Mediterranean. For nearly 2 years he wandered about Greece and the Aegean Islands. This was the shaping time of his imagination.
When he was 23 his mother died, and he came home, an extremely handsome young man, to install himself boisterously at Newstead Abbey. He entered London society and spoke in the House of Lords. It was now that he showed his friend, R.C. Dallas, a new satire, Hints from Horace. Dallas, secretly not much impressed, asked if he had anything else； Byron quite casually said that he had 'a lot of Spenserian stanzas’. Dallas read them with astonishment and delight, showed them to Murray the publisher, and on 20 February 1812, the first two cantos of Childe Harold were published. They took the town by storm. Byron became famous overnight. He could not now write fast enough, and in the next 4 years appeared a series of romantic poems, the best among them being he Corsair and he Bride of Abydos. It is said that 14,000 copies of The Corsair were sold in a day.
Byron had always been susceptible to women and attractive to them； now that he was successful they threw themselves at his head. For 3 years he lived ；in the limelight, and then, quite unaccountably, married Ann Milbanke, a frigid, correct, intellectual woman, entirely unsuited to him, but with a lot of money. She bore him a daughter and left him within a year, hinting that he had an immoral relationship with his halfsister Augusta. Society turned against him, as lavish now with calumny and spite as it had been with praise and flattery. Byron would not stay to be insulted； he left England for good.
The next few years were spent mostly in Venice, where Byron established himself with a menagerie of strange animals and conducted various love-affairs. It was in Italy that his masterpiece Don Juan was written. This brilliant, caustic, rambling satire is written in a colloquial style which is the result of a mastery of technique. Byron, always a fluent writer, was not over-critical of his own work； but Beppo, A Vision of Judgement, and Don Juan more than justify his reputation as a great poet. His influence on European literature —— both by what he wrote and by the general idea of the romantic figure of Childe Harold —— the typical Byronic hero —— was very great.
Like many poets, Byron was at heart a man of action. He loved the idea of freedom, and threw himself with intense energy into the Greek struggle for independence from Turkey. In 1823 he left Italy for Greece, but the next year, worn out with the ardours of the campaign, he caught rheumatic fever and died at Missolonghi, mourned as a national hero by the Greeks.
From Oxford Junior Encyclopedia
人们认为拜伦勋爵比任何其他诗人更象自己创造的英雄人物——即富于浪漫色彩的旅游者恰尔德·哈罗德；被社会摈弃的曼弗雷德；愤世嫉俗,铁石心肠的情人唐·璜.虽然拜伦确曾利用自己的生活经历作为素材写了很多诗篇,但这些诗篇决不纯粹是自传性质的.然而最能真正体现拜伦的天才的还是他的那些长诗,而不是通常在选集里作为他的代表作的那些抒情诗.
拜伦出生于一个名声有些问题的贵族家庭.他三岁时,父亲死于饮酒过度和生活腐化.他十岁时,他的叔祖——即“邪恶的”拜伦勋爵——也去世了.拜伦继承了爵位,继承了称为“纽斯台德寺院”的大宅邸和已经抵押出去的或已趋于衰败的产业.
拜伦的父亲第一次结婚以后生了一个女儿,名叫奥古斯塔,即拜伦的同父异母姐姐.他父亲的第二个妻子,即拜伦的亲生母亲,是一个高傲的、性情暴躁的、卡尔文教派的苏格兰盖特这个地方的妇女,名叫凯瑟琳·戈登.拜伦生下时,一只脚就带有残疾——这使他在年轻时候极为敏感,由此给他带来莫大的痛苦.他到哈罗学校和剑桥大学的三一学院学习,在学校里,他养了一只熊,而且还有其他一些古怪行为.他在大学读书时,就出版了第一本诗集《闲散的时光》.这本诗集受到的应有的非难刺痛了拜伦的心,他没有绝望,而是想报复,他以蒲柏的风格写了一篇名为《英格兰诗人和苏格兰评论家》的讽刺诗作为回答.离开剑桥大学以后,拜伦启程往欧洲作长途旅行,这是受过象他这种教育的人的传统习俗.但是由于拿破仑战争,他走的路线不是通常那样由陆路从巴黎到罗马,而是通过海路到里斯本、西班牙和地中海一带.将近两年当中,他漫游了希腊和爱琴海群岛.这是他的想象力形成的时期.
当他二十三岁时,他的母亲去世了.他成为一个非常漂亮的青年,回到了家里,兴高采烈地在纽斯台德寺院安顿了下来.他进入了伦敦社交界,在上议院发表演讲.就在这个时候,他把一首新的讽刺诗《霍勒斯的启示》给他的朋友R.C.达拉斯看.达拉斯对这首诗印象并不好,但没有表露出来,而是问他是否还写了别的什么东西；拜伦漫不经心地说,写了“许多斯宾塞诗节”.达拉斯以惊喜的心情读完了这些诗篇,并把这些诗篇推荐给了出版商默里.1812年2月20日《恰尔德·哈罗德》第一、二章出版了,全城为之轰动.拜伦在一夜之间成了名.从此以后,他写得再快也应接不暇.在这以后的四年期间,他写了一系列浪漫诗篇,其中最好的有《海盗》和《阿比多斯的新娘》.据说,《海盗》一天就销售了一万四千册.
拜伦对于女性总是容易动感情,而且对妇女具有吸引力.现在他既然已经飞黄腾达,她们更愿意委身于他.三年里他出够了风头,然后,莫名其妙地和安·米尔班克结了婚,她是一个冷漠的、严肃的、有理智的妇女,对于他根本不合适,只是有很多钱.她给他生了一个女儿,不到一年就离开了他,暗示他和他的同父异母姐姐奥古斯塔关系暖昧.整个社会转而对他采取敌对态度,对他进行恶意的诽谤和诬蔑,其过分的程度就如当初对他进行赞美和吹捧那样.拜伦不愿继续忍受这种侮辱,他离开了英国,一去不复返.
以后几年他主要是在威尼斯度过的,在那儿他驯养了一群珍奇动物,也搞了不少风流韵事.他有杰作《唐·璜》是在意大利写的.这篇光辉的,刻薄的,但很松散的讽刺叙事诗是以一种通俗的口语体写的,这种体裁是他掌握技巧的成果.拜伦总是写得很流畅,对于自己的作品不作过多的推敲和修饰；但是《别波》、《审判的幻景》和《唐·璜》这三部作品证明他的伟大诗人的名望是当之无愧的.他对欧洲文学的影响——通过他所写的作品以及恰尔德·哈罗德这个浪漫派人物,即典型的拜伦式英雄的一般概念所散布的影响——是极为巨大的.
象许多诗人一样,拜伦在本质上是一个活动家.他热爱自由这个理想,他以旺盛的精力投身于希腊为摆脱土耳其统治而进行的独立斗争中.1823年,他离开意大利前往希腊,但是第二年,他由于热心独立运动而劳累过度,染上了风湿病,终于在梅索朗吉昂去世,成为希腊人所悼念的一位民族英雄.
译自《牛津少年百科全书》