The History Behind Byron's "Fare Thee Well"

 by Amelia Hellam

Byron is like many authors who gather inspiration from life experiences. In the case of Lord Byron's poem "Fare Thee Well" the poem was written as an expression of his feelings to his estranged wife. The fifteen stanza long poem was attached to the end of a letter to his wife Annabella as a final attempt to mend their problematic marriage. It was a private poem intended to convince Annabella of his love for her and perchance to win her back into his affection. Annabella didn't reply to Byron's letter so Byron had a copy of the poem printed for his small circle of friends to inspire sympathy for himself. "Fare Thee Well" ended up being published in the newspapers and instead of evoking sympathy for Byron, the poem inspired the public to sympathize with Annabella.

Byron first met Anne Isabella Milbanke, his future wife, at a morning party given by Lady Caroline Lamb on March 25, 1812 (Elwin 145). Annabella was the first cousin of William Lamb, Lady Caroline's husband. (Elwin 12). Although married, Lady Catherine had an affair with Byron during the months of March through May of 1812. While entangled with Lady Caroline, Byron falls in love with Annabella a fact which he confides to Lady Melbourne (Grosskurth 168). Lady Melbourne was Byron's close confidant in addition to being Annabella's aunt and Lady Caroline's mother-in-law. As Byron went from affair to affair, he would discuss his predicaments with Lady Melbourne, often sharing the letters from his various love interests. Lady Melbourne served as a surrogate mother while also carrying on a flirtatious relationship with Byron.

In October of 1812 Byron first proposes to Annabella through Lady Melbourne. Annabella refuses him believing that he is not truly in love with her and that he is the sort of man that she would be happy with. Byron writes back inquiring what qualities Annabella requires in a husband. She responds with a list of qualities including the comment "I would not enter into a family where there is a strong tendency to Insanity" (Grosskurth 169). Although her refusal was quite clear, Annabella writes Byron a lengthy letter on August 22, 1813 to reopen their amour. The two were improperly matched. Byron was a young man with a tendency for vices, namely alcohol, food and women. Annabella was a very conscientious person of high character and strict morals. In Byron she saw a dangerous yet alluring quality that she fell in love with. Annabella believed that she could save Byron from his faults (Stowe 239). Not only did Annabella fall for Byron's "bad boy" image, but she was also acutely aware that he was a famous literary star with good looks.

Byron's success was getting him in trouble. He was constantly chasing and being chased by women. Byron began to woo his half sister Augusta Leigh in August of 1813. On April 15, 1914 Augusta gave birth to Elizabeth Medora who is believed to be the child of Byron's and Augusta's incestuous relationship. To end rumors that circulated about the two of them, Augusta urged Byron to marry. Annabella, due to their correspondence for the past eight months and previous romantic history, seemed the likely candidate. In September of 1814 Byron proposes and Annabella surprisingly accepts. Her acceptance was surprising to Byron because the proposal was written in haste to relieve one of his moods and then prompted to be sent by Augusta. Due to pride and a growing affection Byron continued with the engagement. After a short engagement Annabella and Byron were married on January 2, 1815.

Their chaotic marriage begun with a stay at Annabella's parents house. The couple then travel to London and then to Six Mile Bottom to stay with Augusta. An account of Lady Byron's stay at Six Mile Bottom can be found in her interview with Harriet Beecher Stowe. Stowe learns

...[Byron] treated his sister with a liberty which both shocked and astonished her [Annabella]. Seeing her amazement and alarm, he came up to her, and said, in a sneering tone "I suppose you perceive you are not wanted here. Go to your own room, and leave us alone. We can amuse ourselves better without you (Stowe 241).

In addition to preferring his sister's company than to his wife he also told her that he expected a free rein. Meaning that he wanted the permission to have lovers and in turn Annabella would be granted the same privilege from him. Annabella hid her grief and misfortune from her family and friends. In March they moved into 13 Piccadilly Terrace in London where they were periodically visited by Augusta. In addition to having a rival in Byron's affections, Annabella had to deal with Byron's obsessive drink habits and his black moods created by his debts. Byron's alcoholism and money problems begin to make Byron appear insane to Annabella and she started to think of separating from him. Byron's response was that if she did leave the whole world would blame her for their separation. Byron said " The world will believe me, and it will not believe you, (Stowe 243). Byron was conscious of the power of fame and public opinion. Ironically the public sided with Annabella.

As cited earlier, Annabella detested madness and it was this "insanity" that eventually drove Annabella to leave Byron. Her opportunity to leave came after the birth of their daughter. Annabella gave birth to Augusta Ada on December 10, 1815. On January 15, 1815, she left London to visit her parents in Leichestershire. Her parents had never like Byron and when they discovered the pain that Annabella suffered during her marriage, they forbade her to see him again (Grosskurth 253). Action was taken to obtain a separation from Byron. Rumors began to spread about Byron's homosexuality and his incestuous relationship to Augusta as being the cause of separation between him and his wife. On March 18, 1816 Byron composed "Fare Thee Well which he mailed to Annabella on March 20.

Byron also had fifty copies of the poem printed for private circulation on April 8, 1816 (Nicholson 83). A copy of "Fare Thee Well and "A Sketch fell into the hands of Henry Brougham who was a "mediator in the separation, and the man whom Annabella described as her warmest champion" (Grosskurth 264). The poem "A Sketch" was written on March 28, 1816 and was a vengeful poem aimed at Annabella's childhood nurse Mrs. Clermont. Byron blamed Mrs. Clermont for raising Annabella in such a cold manner. The poem "A Sketch" turned public opinion against him. Brougham had the two poems published in a paper called the Champion on April 14, 1816. On April 17, the Morning Post took Annabella's side of the separation while the rival newspaper the Morning Chronicle took Byron's side (Grosskurth 264). The poem was once again published without authorization on April 21, 1816 in the Examiner (Nicholson 83). On this same day Byron signed the papers to legalize the separation between Annabella and himself. The inclusion of Coleridge's lines from Christabel were not included in the March 20th version that was sent to Annabella. "Fare Thee Well" was again printed in 1816 in Byron's work entitled Poems. This version in Poems contained the segment of Christabel in addition to some revisions.

"Fare Thee Well" is clearly an autobiographical poem. Grosskurth believes the emotions of the poem to truly depict the emotions that Byron was feeling at the time of the separation. It is ambiguous whether or not Byron was really in love with his wife or not. In Stowe's interview with Lady Byron, Annabella says Byron did not love her when they were first married. "Fare Thee Well" does pull at the heart strings with the promise of undying love. The public at the time though was aware of Byron's personal history and with the venomous "A Sketch" being published at the same time, most of the public opinion sided with Annabella. As time went on "Fare Thee Well" continued to be a popular poem and audiences began to sympathize with Byron's loss. Harriet Beecher Stowe grew up under the impression that Byron had been ill treated by his wife. Yet Byron was cast in a different light when she interviewed his wife and her opinion of him changed.

Byron was aware that the rumors that circulated about his past painted him in a dark light. He included this fact in "Fare Thee Well." In lines 13-16, Byron is pleading Annabella to go against public opinion. He knows that Annabella is a sensitive and kind person that she would hate to see another person congratulated by hurting another. The child he refers to in stanzas nine through eleven is his daughter Augusta Ada. Byron never had a relationship with Ada just as his poem proclaimed. The poem shows that the Byron wanted to be a father, or at least to not be forgotten in his child's life.

"Fare Thee Well" pales in comparison to Byron's greater works such as "Manfred" and "Don Juan" yet it a sad reminder of a tempestuous passion. As time progresses the poem gains more importance as piece of work in its own right, rather than as a plea written to an estranged wife. Within his poem "Fare Thee Well," Byron captures the essence of feeling that is felt when one loses their love. Perhaps it is for this reason that the poem continues to live on in anthologies and even in movies such as the BBC 1997 production of Jane Austen's Persuasion.

Works Cited

Elwin, Malcolm. Lord Byron's Wife. London: Macdonald and Co., 1962.

Grosskurth, Phyllis. Byron: The Flawed Angel. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997.

Nicholson, Andrew. The Manuscripts of The Younger Romantics: A Facsimile Edition, with Full Transcriptions and Commentary. Vol. 12. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc, 1998. 13 vols.

Page, Norman. A Byron Chronology. London: The Macmillan Press LTD, 1988.

Stowe, Harriet Beecher Stowe. Lady Byron Vindicated: A History of The Byron Controversy, From its Beginning in 1816 to The Present Time. Boston: Fields Osgood, and Co., 1870.