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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Whenever critics have noted an influence of the Platonic dialogues upon Byron, they have assumed that it is practically limited to the passing echo of Shelley's and Wordsworth's Platonism in the third canto of Childe Harold. In this paper I hope to show that, on the contrary, Byron had independent convictions about the Platonic-Socratic philosophy, which underlay most of his mature writing and which were inconsistent with his reflection of Shelley's metaphysics in Childe Harold.
1 I am here making the usual assumption that the historic Socrates is revealed in the dialogues of Plato wherever they are not inconsistent with the Memorabilia of Xenophon.
2 Shelley suggests that in their Platonic arguments Byron took the position of Socrates. In Julian and Maddalo Shelley says Byron made him know himself. “Know thyself” was, of course, the key of Socrates' teaching.
3 See Childe Harold, II, 7.
4 Deformed Transformed, I, 1.
5 See the letters to Francis Hodgson, September 3, 1811, to Thomas Moore, March 1, 1822; to Augusta Leigh, Oct. 12, 1823; Detached Thoughts, 104; Answer to Some Observations by Thomas Campbell; Don Juan V, 1; VII, 4; IX, 74; IX, 73; IX, 76; X, 54; XI, 43; XV, 86; XVI, 43; II, 212; II, 211. Also see Conversations of Lord Byron with the Countess of Blessington, p. 371; and T. G. Guiccioli, My Recollections of Lord Byron, I, 108.
6 See Childe Harold, II, 7; Detached Thoughts, 104; Letter to Hon. Douglas Kinnard; Journal, Jan. 25, 1821; Deformed Transformed, I, 1; Don Juan, Preface to Canto VI; VII, 5; XIII, 10; XV, 18; XV, 85; XV, 86; XVII, 9. See also Thomas Medwin, Conversations of Lord Byron, I, 67.
7 See Blessington, Conversations with Lord Byron, p. 371.
8 See Guiccolli, My Recollections of Lord Byron, I, 245.
9 In Phaedrus §250 see the figure describing the behavior of the winged and unwinged steeds, representing our will and our physical wants, and see Manfred I, 2,
We
Half dust, half deity, alike unfit
To sink or soar, with our mixed essence make
A conflict of its [nature's] elements and breathe
The breath of degradation and of pride,
Contending with low wants and lofty will.
Also in Phaedrus §246 note the disappointment of the immortal soul that was obliged to be born into this life: “It lost its feathers and sank—the philosopher alone has wings.” In the Prophecy of Dante Byron says of poets:
These birds of Paradise but long to flee
Back to their native mansion: soon they find
Earth's mist with their pure pinions not agree.
Also see in Phaedrus §250 the figure of the soul “imprisoned in the body as in an oyster shell,” and see Don Juan X, 23, where Byron says our bodies “shut our souls up in us like a shell-fish.” See also Phaedrus §245, “The soul is immortal, for that is immortal which is ever in motion,” and Byron's Detached Thoughts §96, “Of the immortality of the soul it appears to me there can be little doubt if we attend a moment to the action of mind. It is in perpetual activity.”
10 In Phaedo §66 Socrates describes the soul as married to the body and yearning for divorce. In Detached Thoughts 97 Byron says of the soul, “I should believe that it was married to the body if they did not sympathize so much with each other. If one rose when the other fell, it would be a sign that they longed for the natural state of divorce.”
11 In Republic VII, §§515-520, note the attack of the dwellers in the cave (the body) upon the philosopher who would show them how to escape. In Childe Harold Byron describes us as
unborn slaves
Who wage war for their chains.“
See also Republic VII, 541, and Byron's comment on his leadership of the Greeks, “Plato, Plato, what a task for a philosopher!” (Letter to Augusta Leigh, Oct. 12, 1823.) See also in Republic VIII, §545, Plato's arbitrary statement of the order in which forms of government follow each other. Byron follows this order faithfully in Childe Harold IV, 108.
12 See Timaeus, §37, and Cain II, 1
“The phantasm of the world, to which thy world
Is but the wreck.“
13 See Apology, §21, and
“Well didst thou speak, Athena's wisest son,
All that we know is, Nothing can be known.“
Also see Apology §42, and Byron's diary, Jan. 25, 1821,
“Which is best, life or death, the gods only know, as Socrates said to his judges.”
14 In 1818 and 1821.
15 See Mary Shelley, Preface to Frankenstein, pp. VII-XI, and Shelley, Prose Works, IV, 211 (Forman ed); also Julian and Maddalo.
16 In Platonism in Shelley, 1912, Lillian Winstanley admit“ that she has merely skimmed the cream of the subject.
17 See the notes to Childe Harold, Canto III, edited by Ernest Hartley Coleridge.
18 See Julian and Maddalo. Also see Manfred, III, 1; Childe Harold, IV, 130; Don Juan, XI, 5; XV, 89.
19 Manfred, II, 4.
20 Don Juan, VII, 5.
21 Childe Harold, II, 7.
22 Don Juan, XI, 2.
23 See Apology §21.
24 Letter to Thomas Moore, March 8, 1822. See also the letter to Thomas Moore, March 4, 1822.
25 Don Juan, XV, 88.
26 Don Juan, XIV, 3.
27 Phaedrus §229.
28 Childe Harold III, 46.
29 Cain, II, 2.
30 See Blessington, Conversations with Lord Byron, p. 137.
31 Letter to John Murray, May 9, 1817. See Blessington, Conversation with Lord Byron, p. 45.
32 See Republic, II, §382.
33 Manfred, I, 2.
34 See Don Juan, XI, 37.
35 See Plato, Meno, §77, Sophist, §228, Apology, §26.
36 Detached Thoughts, §96.
37 Cain, II, 2. See also Blessington, Conversations with Lord Byron, p. 248.
38 Of Byron's recoil from the authoritarian conception of right and wrong, his statement in Cain is significant. “Evil and good are things in their own essence, and not made good and evil by the giver.” Cain, II, 2.
39 See E. C. Mayne, Byron, II, 26, “It is my respect for morals that makes me so indignant against its vile substitute, cant. With this I wage war, and this the good-natured world chooses to consider as a sign of my wickedness.” See also Don Juan, preface to Canto VI, where Byron pointed out that the world put him in the same class with greater moralists than he: “Socrates and Jesus Christ were put to death publicly as blasphemers, and so may be many who dare to oppose the most notorious abuses of the name of God and the mind of man.” See also Don Juan, VII, 3; the letter to John Murray, February 1, 1819; and Shelley, letter to Byron, October 21, 1821.
40 Xenophon, Memorabilia IV, 7, 1.
41 For the change in Byron's view of pleasure after he made the acquaintance of Socrates see his poetry in The Hours of Idleness, where pleasure is given highest place, as the reward of virtue and the sanction of religion ,(See I would I were a Careless Child, On the Death of a Young Lady, To Caroline, To the Sighing Strephon) and Childe Harold II, 81 (written in 1810), and compare it with his later somewhat rueful contention, “The more intellectual the pleasure, the better for the pleasure and for us too.” Journal, Jan. 15, 1821. Cf. Xenophon, Memorabilia, IV, 5, 6, 8; Plato, Philebus, §52; Phaedrus, §258 E; Republic IX, §586.
42 Gorgias, §526.
43 See Childe Harold III, 43; Don Juan I, 218.
44 See Byron, Epistle to Augusta V; Prometheus III; Childe Harold IV, 21; IV, 5; The Dream. Cf. Plato, Gordas, §477; Republic, §§348-354.
45 See Plato, Philebus 31; Zaws, II, §653.
46 See Republic, §§348-354 and Apology.
47 See Manfred I, 2: “Oh that I were …. a breathing harmony.”
48 Childe Harold, IV, 126.
49 See Plato, Republic, IX, §576.
50 See Plato, Philebus, §31; Sophist, §228.
51 Marino Faliero, II, 2.
52 Ode to Napoleon.
53 Condolatory Address.
54 Don Juan, V, 25.
55 Sardanapolus, I, 2.
56 The Two Foscari, III, 1.
57 The Island, II, 8.
58 Childe Harold, IV, 89.
59 Elegy on Newstead Abbey.
60 Plato, Republic, 563.
61 Don Juan, IX, 25.
62 Shelley, Julian and Maddalo.
63 See Plato, Republic VI, §493.
64 Don Juan, XV, 17-18.
65 See the letter to Thomas Moore, Aug. 6, 1822.
66 See the letter to Augusta Leigh, Oct. 12, 1823. Cf. Republic VII, 540.
67 Childe Harold, III, 90.
68 See Cain, II, 2; Don Juan IX, 37. Cf. with Plato, Timaeus, §22 and Statesman, §269.
69 Childe Harold, IV, 108. Cf. Republic, VIII, 545 ff.
70 Phaedo, §66.
71 See Epistle to Augusta; Childe Harold, III, 14; III, 73; IV, 5; IV, 135; When Coldness Wraps this Suffering Clay; Manfred, I, 2; II, 4; Cain, II, 1; Sardanapolus, IV, 1; The Prophecy of Dante; The Island, II, 16.
72 Cratylus, §400.
73 See The Deformed Transformed, II, 3; Childe Harold, IV, 135; Manfred, II, 4.
74 Manfred, I, 2. Cf. Phaedrus, 253.
75 Coin, II, 1..
76 See Don Juan, X, 23; Epistle to Augusta; Childe Harold, IV, 5; IV, 127. Cf. Phaedrus, §250.
77 See Childe Harold, IV, 94. Cf. Republic, VII, 515-520.
78 Timaeus, §53. Cf. Statesman, §273.
79 Detached Thoughts, §97.
80 See Manfred, Eimer, “Byron und der Kosmos,” Anglistische Forschungen XXXIV; O. Schmidt, Rousseau und Byron.
81 Cain, II, 2.
82 Plato, Republic IX, §585; Phaedo, §79; Republic, VI, §§485-490.
83 Don Juan, XV, 1. Cf. XV, 99; Manfred, II, 2; Childe Harold, III, 11; IV, 32; Don Juan, XIV, 3; To Caroline; Childe Harold, IV, 123.
84 Don Juan, X, 20.
85 Plato, Phaedo, §66.
86 Phaedrus, §245.
87 Detached Thoughts, §96.
88 Childe Harold, IV, 137.
89 See Cain, II, 1; When Coldness Wraps this Suffering Clay; If That High World; Sardanapolus, IV, 1; Childe Harold, II, 8; II, 39.
90 Cain, II, 2.
91 Cf. Phaedrus, §246 ff. with Lara XVIII; Two Fascari III, 1; Prometheus; Prophecy of Dante.
92 Detached Thoughts, §96.
93 Phaedo 579.
94 Childe Harold, III, 73.
95 Marino Fallero, II, 1. Cf. Cain, I, 1; Childe Harold, III, 70.
96 See Childe Harold, IV, 33; Manfred III, 4. Cf. Plato, Phaedo, §66.
97 See F. W. Moorman, “Byron,” Cambridge Hist. of Engl. Lit.
98 See Plato, Republic, VII, §529.
99 Cain II, 1. Cf. Timaeus.
100 Manfred, I, 1.
101 Don Juan, XI, 43.
102 Letter to John Murray, Aug. 7, 1817.
103 Childe Harold, IV, 6.
104 Childe Harold, IV, 7.
105 See The Island, II, 16.
106 See Blessington, Conversations With Lord Byron, p. 118.
107 See Plato, Phaedrus, §250; Republic VI, 500.
108 See Childe Harold, III, 6; Childe Harold, IV, 162; Journal Memoranda, Jan. 28, 1821.
109 See Childe Harold, IV, 122.
110 See Letters to John Murray, Apr. 2, 1817; Apr. 6, 1817; Apr. 14, 1817; To John Hanson, Apr. 2, 1807; Childe Harold, II, 1. Cf. Plato, Gorgias, §463; Republic, X, §§596 ff.
111 Don Juan, XV, 85.
112 Childe Harold, IV, 121.
113 See Plato, Phaedrus and Symposium.
114 Cain, I, 1.
115 Don Juan, II, 212.
116 Don Juan, II, 211.
117 See Guiccolli, My Recollections of Lord Byron, I, 108.
118 See Plato, Phaedrus, §249; Republic, §§485, 490; Xenophon, Memorabilia, 1, 1, 16.
119 See Timaeus, 39, 41, 53; Statesman, §272; Republic, X, 617; Laws, §709.
120 Stanzas to the Po. Cf. Epistle to Augusta, Detached Thoughts, §83; Cain, III, 1; The Two Foscari, II, 1; Deformed Transformed, I, 2.
121 See Apology, §40.
122 See Lara; The Dream; Detached Thoughts, §95; Don Juan, XIV, 4; Euthanasia.
123 See Childe Harold, II, 7.
124 Detached Thoughts, §104.
125 Don Juan, XIII, 10.