Bits About Byron
In ‘Arcadia’ Lord Byron is only commented on: he is never seen. However, much of the plot revolves around him and his actions. In this respect Art has imitated Life, for Byron, the man, was of as much interest to his scandalised contemporaries as his poetry.
During his short life Byron pursued love, fame, and adventure. George Gordon, Lord Byron was born an aristocrat. He attended Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge, as did his fictional friend Septimus Hodge. However, the latter was not able to match the former’s lifestyle, for Byron indulged in a variety of sexual affairs that scandalised polite society and led to him having to flee the country.
Why Byron left England exactly when he did has always been something of a mystery to literary scholars. What Stoppard does, brilliantly, in ‘Arcadia’ is to dramatise this mystery and, in so doing, to raise all manner of questions about Art, Life and Love. Whether his explanation is plausible we will leave you to decide.
And what about the poetry? Some of his words encapsulate perfectly the themes of the play and so we will leave you with them:
But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
Falling like dew, upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think;
'Tis strange, the shortest letter which man uses
Instead of speech, may form a lasting link
Of ages; to what straits old Time reduces
Frail man, when paper - even a rag like this - ,
Survives himself, his tomb, and all that's his.