Byron and the Regency Bath, 3–4 December 2015

Abstract

Jointly organised by Alan Rawes at the University of Manchester, Diego Saglia from the University of Parma's Centro Interuniversitario per lo Studio del Romanticismo, and Steve Wharton of the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, the international conference 'Byron and the Regency' was held 3-4 December 2015 in the architecturally sublime Georgian city of Bath, England. The conference was held in the Elwin room, complete with its ceiling paintings of the Four Seasons by Andrea Casali, and overlooked Queen's Square and the Prince of Wales obelisk.The first session of the conference began on Thursday 3 December and was titled 'Sick at Heart of Politics: Byron and the Political Regency'. Clara Tuite's (Melbourne) paper 'Upon the Dice: Cain, A Bedroom Farce, and the Carbonari' held that Cain was conceived and written during the 'Carbonari period' in July 1821 and completed during the revolution's failure. In her essay, Tuite argues that there are underpinnings of a 'bedroom farce' in that we see Adah's captivity in her love for Cain. And while Lucifer seduces Adah, Byron seduces the reader into a farce of bedroom 'politics'. Robert W. Jones (Leeds) presented 'Thy Last Memorial to the Age: Byron, Sheridan and Regency Politics' in which he pointed out that Sheridan was of the liberal mindset of the already liberal Whig poetry of the time. He then went on to discuss the connection between Byron, Sheridan, and politics by pointing out that Lady Caroline Lamb's husband was Queen Victoria's first prime minister, which directly linked Byron to the Regency and indirectly to the Victorians. The final paper of the session was given by Malcolm Kelsall (Cardiff ). Kelsall's 'I Would Have Made an English Lord Edward Fitzgerald: Byron and the United Irishmen' drew parallels with Jones's paper by connecting Byron to the political. For example, Kelsall described the connections between Byron and Thomas Moore. Moore, according to Kelsall, attended Trinity College Dublin and fraternised with the United Irishmen who, in 1798, would fail in their attempts to overthrow and remove the English from Ireland. As a result, of their close association, Moore, in his biography of Byron, made the latter an 'honorary' Irishman. Byron, whilst still alive, knew that as a lord and an aristocrat that he would be vulnerable to attack during any kind of uprising.After a short discussion and the obligatory coffee/tea break, the second session was titled 'I want a hero/ine: Byron and Regency Identities'. The first paper was given by Carlotta Farese (Bologna), whose 'Darcy's Dark Side: Byronic Masculinity in Jane Austen's Novels' was fitting not only because Austen spent a deal of time in Bath, but because Farese argued that Persuasion seems to hold heroic elements (such as: the Byronic hero and anti-hero, Conrad and Mr. Darcy, respectively) that can be traced to Byron's 'Turkish Tales'. Anna Camilleri (Oxford) presented 'Conversant with Heroism: Byron's Regency Heroines', which examined the 'cerebral heroism', that is heroic speech in Byron, choosing to focus on Byron's satire The Blues. Camilleri looked at how Byron satirises the seemingly empty verbosity of women all the while one of the characters, Sir Richard Bluebottle, is henpecked by the Blues. The final paper of the session, and the first day of the conference, was given by Caroline Franklin (Swansea). Franklin's 'Byron, Dandyism and the Theatre of Suicide' queried if Byron really was a dandy and if a dandy could really be a poet. She quoted Byron admitting that in his youth he was indeed a dandy, supported by several acquaintances. She then examined the connection between dandyism and suicide, noting that the French poets were prone to bouts of suicidal thoughts, which Franklin argued was rooted in their appreciation of Manfred.Following Thursday's session, participants met for pre-dinner drinks at one of the local and colourful pubs, before proceeding to the splendid conference dinner. …