Byron BBC Miniseries 2003 by Beth Freed - Dailymotion

Beth Freed

Following the success of his poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage", Byron becomes the toast of London.

Transcript

00:00:00I woke one morning to find myself famous.

00:00:05Goodbye.

00:00:06Will you take tea?

00:00:11In what respect cautious?

00:00:13In respect of falling in love.

00:00:15I want you.

00:00:16Well, seduce me then.

00:00:17You know why you do boys with tight little arses, don't you?

00:00:24I am dreadfully perverted.

00:00:26I think you play a part for the ladies, if the truth be known.

00:00:29You're damn crinkum-crankum.

00:00:33You know how sinful this is?

00:00:37Have you entirely lost your wits?

00:00:45You need a wife.

00:00:46Well, you're a wife.

00:00:47I'll have you.

00:00:48Get off me!

00:00:49I love you!

00:01:51I love you.

00:01:57I love you.

00:02:03I love you.

00:02:09Luncheon, m'lady.

00:02:25Good afternoon.

00:02:45Good afternoon.

00:02:51From whom is your letter?

00:02:57My sister.

00:03:03You got up eventually.

00:03:12That's a good sign.

00:03:15My mistress writes every day at six.

00:03:19Bloody hell.

00:03:25I wish to make your happiness the first object in life.

00:03:29Please tell me what you expect of me and I'll try.

00:03:33I only want a woman to laugh.

00:03:36I don't care what she is besides.

00:03:38I could make Auguste laugh at anything.

00:03:41I dare say I might laugh if you said something funny.

00:03:49Well then, climb that ledge.

00:03:51I'll race you.

00:03:53What?

00:03:54To the top there.

00:03:55One, two, three, go.

00:03:57I'm stuck.

00:04:20I'm stuck.

00:04:42Oh, you're reading the Bible.

00:04:44Yes.

00:04:46But it will do no good.

00:04:48You have married a fallen angel.

00:04:50I think that is what Mr. Hobhouse calls an affectation.

00:04:54Do you?

00:04:56Well, proselytize then.

00:04:59Come along.

00:05:01Sit down and convert me.

00:05:03You may find it a problem.

00:05:05I'm an accomplished solver of problems.

00:05:08Then you reckon you can solve me with your fraction of theology.

00:05:12I warm to the challenge.

00:05:16Alas, my dear, I already have a great mind to believe in Christianity.

00:05:20As I thought.

00:05:22Merely for the pleasure of fancying myself damned.

00:05:26You've seen my mark.

00:05:28You know how wicked I am.

00:05:30You were born with a minor deformity.

00:05:32Nothing more.

00:05:34You are not wicked.

00:05:36Oh, I am a villain, Val.

00:05:40I could convince you of it in three words.

00:06:40Come back to bed.

00:06:50Awake the star.

00:07:06Your head should have a softer pillow than my heart.

00:07:12I wonder which will break first.

00:07:16Yours or mine.

00:07:22Why are you so miserable, Bea?

00:07:27Annabella, you are good to me.

00:07:29I could not have hoped for a fonder wife.

00:07:33I'll do anything for you.

00:07:35Would you?

00:07:37Name it. I'll do it.

00:07:40Take me to visit your sister.

00:07:42That's what I should like.

00:07:45It's the devil of a long way to Newmarket, Val.

00:07:48That's what I should like.

00:08:04I've got a bad feeling in my water, Miss Rude.

00:08:24What is the matter?

00:08:26I need a drink.

00:08:28Why?

00:08:31Must one give reasons for a drink?

00:08:35Augusta, my wife.

00:08:38Lady Byron.

00:08:39Mrs. Lee, I've heard so much about you.

00:08:43I trust you had a wonderful honeymoon?

00:08:47The treacle moon?

00:08:49Well, we waded through it, didn't we, Val?

00:08:53And Mrs. Medora.

00:08:59Medora?

00:09:00The girl in the corsair.

00:09:06Definitely a Byron, isn't she?

00:09:11Bea has promised he will not go out so much as he was used to.

00:09:15We shall stay home and read.

00:09:17We are great looking forward to a quiet life in Piccadilly, aren't we?

00:09:23I intend to start him on Locke's reasonableness of Christianity.

00:09:27Let him try arguing with that.

00:09:29I wonder how the fashions go this season.

00:09:32Are the women wearing drawers or are they not?

00:09:35That is the question.

00:09:37To bear arse or not to bear arse.

00:09:40He's a Ron Teas' missus.

00:09:42Will you take up drawers, Belle?

00:09:44Augusta has.

00:09:46You'll save that kind of talk for your club if you don't mind.

00:09:49I don't know where you get these ideas.

00:09:51I get them from the month we spent at Newstead.

00:09:53In the snow.

00:09:57I've never been to Newstead.

00:09:59No, and you never will because I'm forced to sell it.

00:10:02If you hadn't been so profligate, you wouldn't have to.

00:10:06Well, you are the chief architect of my fate.

00:10:11A fate that can only be described as benevolent.

00:10:15You have married felicitously, George.

00:10:18I should not have married at all.

00:10:24Well, I'm tired.

00:10:26I think I shall go to bed.

00:10:31Are you coming?

00:10:45Indeed, the old fool fancies himself a poet

00:10:49and composes Durham Doggerall in my honour,

00:10:53while her mother, who could crack walnuts with her buttocks

00:10:56and weeps tears of glass,

00:10:59is as gentle a trollop as one might wish to meet.

00:11:02You are vile.

00:11:04Oh, it was a jolly charade.

00:11:08How long, I wonder, can I go on playing my part

00:11:12now that I have you?

00:11:19No.

00:11:21No.

00:11:23Your wife is under my roof.

00:11:42What are you doing?

00:11:44It's perfectly normal.

00:11:47Who is it?

00:11:50Don't you like it?

00:11:59Have you heard from Siam?

00:12:01How is your papa?

00:12:04His gout is troubling him.

00:12:07Tiresome gout, but rarely fatal.

00:12:13You do sing out at the first sign of terminal illness, though,

00:12:15won't you?

00:12:18I find completely perplexed in this extraordinary solicitude

00:12:20as to my prospects of fortune.

00:12:23You have wealth of your own.

00:12:26My dear, I cannot sell Newstead.

00:12:28I have nothing but debt.

00:12:32I will not let something as dull as debt

00:12:34cause doubts and risks between us.

00:12:37I'm very loyal, you know.

00:12:39Oh, God.

00:12:40Will you please stop this blaspheming?

00:12:53Your master seems vaporish.

00:12:56Oh, he's a decent sultan.

00:13:00There's something about this marrying that don't agree with him.

00:13:04Married yourself, are you?

00:13:05Me?

00:13:07Widower.

00:13:11Sorry to hear it.

00:13:15Most of the time he's a darling, is he?

00:13:20We were happy at Siam, but then we came here and...

00:13:26Well, I boss him about.

00:13:30Silly goose resents it.

00:13:33He's the gentlest man.

00:13:35But when he's in his black mood, he's horrid.

00:13:40Did you tell him to marry me?

00:13:43Of course.

00:13:45I had to get rid of him somehow.

00:13:50We must reform.

00:13:52You've said it yourself.

00:13:54Augusta, I need you.

00:13:55That is over, in the past.

00:13:57Medora is not in the past.

00:13:59Medora is nothing to do with you.

00:14:02Medora's the current's child.

00:14:04Oh, is she?

00:14:05This is a very sudden interest you have in little babies.

00:14:08I'd lay down with you, Gus. We were lovers.

00:14:11But now you are married, and it is ancient history.

00:14:15Christ, I hate being married.

00:14:18You may not hate it.

00:14:20You must try to be content, try to be a good husband.

00:14:24Will you try?

00:14:26Tell me why I should.

00:14:29If you love me as you say, you will try.

00:14:33I do love you.

00:14:36Then try.

00:14:40Goodbye.

00:14:41Bye, Mom.

00:14:42Bye.

00:14:46Goodbye, George.

00:14:47Goodbye, Dad.

00:14:56Bye.

00:14:57Goodbye.

00:15:04Bye.

00:15:23She's a darling.

00:15:24I like her enormously.

00:15:26She tells me she's been made a lady

00:15:28and waiting to Queen Charlotte, so she'll be often up to town.

00:15:32I said to come up to us and pick a dilly.

00:15:42But I think I'm expecting a child.

00:15:47Oh, God.

00:16:01Nice place.

00:16:03Marriage has its book, as they say.

00:16:06Well, I got a wife and a cold on the same day.

00:16:09But I got rid of the cold pretty speedily.

00:16:12I don't think there's any need for that.

00:16:14You haven't lived here for six months.

00:16:19We hope for a boy, of course.

00:16:21We are most contented, aren't we?

00:16:25Well, to be frank, we were a little discomposed at Six Mile Bottom,

00:16:28but we seem to have weathered that.

00:16:32Keep your eye on Mrs Lee.

00:16:34The woman is very clever and very wicked.

00:16:40Good morning, Captain Hophouse.

00:16:42Plain Mr Hophouse now, Lady Byron.

00:16:44I had to resign my commission.

00:16:47Did it cost a lot, getting elected?

00:16:49Most of my inheritance, I'm afraid.

00:16:51But I rather suspect it was worth it.

00:16:53I'm now in a position where I may have some influence

00:16:56upon the fate of this country.

00:16:58And that is where I have always wanted to be.

00:17:02What have you got against living in Piccadilly, George?

00:17:06It's 700 a year, that's what.

00:17:09And the day before last, I found a grey hair on my head.

00:17:12Christ!

00:17:1428, insolvent and grey.

00:17:20Who's that talking to Shelley?

00:17:24A Greek fellow.

00:17:26Drumming up money.

00:17:28A Greek fellow.

00:17:30Drumming up money for some lost cause.

00:17:36Trust Shelley to fall for it.

00:17:47My Lord, there are...

00:17:49We're having a little trouble with...

00:17:52Dalis.

00:17:59Mama will hear this news.

00:18:02No doubt the heavenly host have contacted her already.

00:18:05Have this ability not to mock the pious.

00:18:07Your mother is about as pious as a boiled egg.

00:18:16What is it you expect of me, Bea?

00:18:23Am I not good enough for you?

00:18:26You are too good.

00:18:27You could be better.

00:18:28You make me worse.

00:18:32What is that?

00:18:34Laudanum.

00:18:36For my nerves.

00:18:58Good morning.

00:18:59Are you working?

00:19:01No, I am thinking of killing myself.

00:19:04I only forebear from a consideration of the pleasure it would give my mother-in-law.

00:19:09My name is Clare Claremont.

00:19:11I'm a friend of Shelley's.

00:19:13Oh.

00:19:14I have read his Queen Mab.

00:19:16And why are you here, Miss Claremont?

00:19:18I'm here to see my mother-in-law.

00:19:20I'm here to see my mother-in-law.

00:19:22I'm here to see my mother-in-law.

00:19:24His Queen Mab.

00:19:25And why are you here, Miss Claremont?

00:19:28I want to go to bed with you.

00:19:34How did he take it?

00:19:36Rather keen, I think.

00:19:39But isn't he married?

00:19:41Well, marriage, what is that?

00:19:43I can never resist the temptation of throwing a pebble at it as I pass by.

00:19:48I shall marry, surely.

00:19:50You know.

00:19:52What prevented you from coming across and saying hello?

00:19:57Not everyone at the club approves of your membership.

00:20:01And you listen to them, do you?

00:20:05Look, because I'm a revolutionist,

00:20:07I'm dragged through the courts for exposing their frauds and scorning their power.

00:20:12And they would tear from me my children, my property, my liberty and my fame.

00:20:17But how can I keep silent when there's this?

00:20:24All religions based on superstition.

00:20:26Priests are agents of state power.

00:20:28Perpetrate our weapon against them.

00:20:33He wants a new society for all men.

00:20:36And women too.

00:20:38Can man be free?

00:20:39Can woman be a slave?

00:20:41Can man be free?

00:20:42Can woman be a slave?

00:20:45I am free.

00:21:10Fletcher!

00:21:15Ah, Fletcher!

00:21:30Brandy and soda.

00:21:32If you please.

00:21:36Esmeralda.

00:21:44Your parrot bit my finger.

00:22:14Ah!

00:22:45I can get along with anyone.

00:22:48Why can't I get along with her?

00:22:53We're like two parallel lines, belong to infinity.

00:22:57Side by side, but destined never to meet.

00:23:01And I'm behaving like a swine.

00:23:03Any idea why?

00:23:05No, because I'm a Byron.

00:23:07And you're all doomed.

00:23:11You engineer it, man.

00:23:12You can't get up in the morning without digging a pit for yourself.

00:23:15I simply won't accept all this predestination guff.

00:23:19I don't believe that any man is damned unequivocally to hell.

00:23:23Oh, well.

00:23:25You're not from Aberdeen, are you?

00:23:31And everything is ready for your accoutrement?

00:23:33We are all prepared.

00:23:35Mama is sending Mrs. Curtin.

00:23:38And I have asked Mrs. Lee to come along.

00:23:41Mrs. Lee?

00:23:42She and her brother are awfully close.

00:23:45But they have some secret, Caro, that I do not share.

00:23:49I do love Augusta.

00:23:51But it is so frustrating.

00:23:54It is like a private language between them.

00:23:58One that I am not allowed to learn.

00:24:12What?

00:24:14It will keep till tomorrow, my lord.

00:24:17I may not be here tomorrow.

00:24:20What do you want, Fletcher?

00:24:23It's Miss Rude.

00:24:26She and me have an inclination to marry.

00:24:29And I wish to ask for your lordship's permission.

00:24:41Ha ha ha ha!

00:24:43Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

00:25:11Beware, the place is full of Lady Milbank's spies.

00:25:30The worst is Mrs Curtin, a bitch from hell.

00:25:34I'm sure she's nothing of the kind.

00:25:38Hand me into your wife.

00:26:00Dearest, I've just this minute seen him.

00:26:06He is behaving oddly.

00:26:09I've asked my doctors to conduct an examination.

00:26:13I think he has some malady.

00:26:16But they found nothing, did they, Mrs Curtin?

00:26:19Nothing they could prove.

00:26:22You don't know what a fool I've been about him.

00:26:25Oh, I'm such a silly Billy.

00:26:30Mr and Mrs Fletcher.

00:26:33Mr and Mrs Fletcher.

00:26:48I paid a call on Cousin Annabella.

00:26:51I believe she's finally found a sum she can't do.

00:26:54Don't talk in riddles, Carol. You know I abhor riddles.

00:26:59It is a curious addition. Byron plus a sister equals...

00:27:05Mrs Lee has come to town.

00:27:07And installed at Piccadilly for the birth.

00:27:12He is long caught a disaster.

00:27:15She is his catastrophe.

00:27:18At what are you hinting?

00:27:20What do you think?

00:27:22I hardly know.

00:27:24An outrage.

00:27:26Which no person of taste will find themselves able to stomach.

00:27:32They're not attached.

00:27:56No!

00:28:27Show me her feet.

00:28:35What were you doing down there?

00:28:39Were you trying to kill us both?

00:28:43Fantastic.

00:28:46I'm sorry.

00:28:48I'm sorry.

00:28:50I'm sorry.

00:28:52I'm sorry.

00:28:54Fantastic.

00:29:06I hope you will be happy.

00:29:12I will never be happy, Mrs Lee.

00:29:16And nor will you.

00:29:20We are mired in the nightmare of our delinquencies.

00:29:36He suggests I take Ada to the Seaham and recover there.

00:29:39That's a long journey for a newborn child.

00:29:42Oh, I think you should go. Let your mama pamper you a little.

00:29:46And, when the opportunity arises,

00:29:49acquaint Lady Milbank with the wrongs he's done you.

00:29:52You will feel better.

00:29:57I would marry a poet, wouldn't I, Caro?

00:30:02I suppose I deserve it.

00:30:05No.

00:30:07Tell your mother everything.

00:30:17Mama!

00:30:33I leave tomorrow.

00:30:36Good.

00:30:38That is good.

00:30:40Some time apart.

00:30:43For reflection.

00:30:46Good.

00:30:57If I thought it would change anything,

00:31:01I'd throw myself at your feet and tell you I love you.

00:31:06And beg you to start our marriage over again.

00:31:17This is the object I treasure most in the world.

00:31:22It went all round Greece with me.

00:31:46I love you.

00:32:16Good.

00:32:21Good!

00:32:36Oh, my dear.

00:32:38Oh, my dear child.

00:32:40Oh, my dear.

00:32:42Oh, my dear.

00:32:44Oh, my dear.

00:32:51He did what?

00:32:55I'm for a reconciliation.

00:32:57Absolutely no question of it.

00:32:59His crime is in the deepest catalogue of human law.

00:33:04What use is it, then?

00:33:07Me?

00:33:09I did not know it was wrong, Papa.

00:33:15I'm ashamed of you, George.

00:33:17You should get out more.

00:33:19Is it true?

00:33:21You sodomised your wife?

00:33:23Everyone does it in Turkey.

00:33:25But not here. Here you can still be hanged for it.

00:33:28Oh, that is a lot of cant.

00:33:30It is entirely common, as everybody knows.

00:33:33But entirely uncommon to be cited in the divorce of the sixth baron, Byron.

00:33:38Her lawyers are insisting on a deed of separation.

00:33:40Now, if you do not sign it,

00:33:42when you go to court, there will be the most appalling scandal.

00:33:45And God knows what else will get out.

00:33:52My dear cousin,

00:33:54it is hard for me to write this,

00:33:56but as news of your probable separation is on everybody's lips,

00:34:00I must offer my condolence and support.

00:34:04The man we have both loved is intolerable.

00:34:07Clearly, you cannot continue this travesty of a marriage

00:34:10whilst his base feeling for his sister remains as potent as ever.

00:34:18You have acted most bravely, Belle,

00:34:20in attempting to curtail their lawless union

00:34:23by the example of your piety and virtue.

00:34:26But it was not in your power to prevent them.

00:34:29They are bonded tight in evil, and you must break away.

00:34:34It is a hard wrench, I know,

00:34:37but it is just.

00:34:41My thoughts and love are with you, your devoted cousin.

00:34:57Your wife has signed. Get out of the country for a spell.

00:35:00Scrooge's right. Stay away from the public eye.

00:35:02But why?

00:35:03Because you were their little Greek god

00:35:05and their delight in pulling you down and tearing you to pieces.

00:35:08There are awful rumours, George.

00:35:10Go abroad tonight, please.

00:35:12Abroad? I'm expected at Lady Jersey's.

00:35:16Mrs Lee's name has been mentioned.

00:35:19My sister is beyond reproach,

00:35:21and I will not slink off like a leper.

00:35:25Blood of Christ! I've done nothing wrong!

00:35:38I've done nothing wrong!

00:36:09CHATTER

00:36:21You must run away.

00:36:23Get away! Run!

00:36:29Come with me.

00:36:33I can't, George.

00:36:36Please, come with me.

00:36:38It is impossible. I can't.

00:36:42But soon you'll come see her.

00:36:44Where?

00:36:47I'll write. I'll tell you where.

00:36:49Do, like George, you do.

00:36:54You know how much I love you.

00:37:05SOBBING

00:37:35CHATTER

00:37:48Lord Byron.

00:38:05CHATTER

00:38:08Though the day of my destiny is over

00:38:11and the star of my fate hath declined,

00:38:14thy soft heart refused to discover

00:38:17the faults which so many could find.

00:38:21Though thy soul with my grief was acquainted,

00:38:24it shrunk not to share it with me,

00:38:26and the love which my spirit hath painted

00:38:29it never hath found but in thee.

00:38:33In the desert a fountain is springing,

00:38:36in the wide waste there still is a tree,

00:38:40and a bird in the solitude singing,

00:38:43which speaks to my spirit of thee.

00:38:46PIANO MUSIC

00:39:16CHATTER

00:39:47CHATTER

00:39:55Mr Shelley is here.

00:39:58Shelley! Oh, my dear good fellow.

00:40:01Mr Shelley.

00:40:13Her name is Margarita, built to breed gladiators from.

00:40:17And illiterate, thank Christ.

00:40:21But how wonderful that you are here.

00:40:24Sit down.

00:40:27There.

00:40:29What do you think of my little palazzo?

00:40:32I hadn't really expected to find you in such company, to be honest.

00:40:36The learned Fletcher feels the same. Do not, Fletcher.

00:40:40My lord? You mislike my Venetians.

00:40:43Well, not against Venetians,

00:40:46except they're foreign, of course.

00:40:48Of course? How is our dinner today?

00:40:51Unspeakably filthy and oily, my lord, as usual.

00:40:56You know where I'd be without Fletcher.

00:40:58He reminds me so much of home.

00:41:01Now, why are you in Venice?

00:41:06Miss Claremont wants her daughter.

00:41:10No, I will not surrender her.

00:41:12But she lives among catamites and prostitutes.

00:41:16Which is why I'm resolved to place her in a convent

00:41:19when she's a year or two older.

00:41:21A Catholic convent? Yes.

00:41:24My daughter will become a good Catholic.

00:41:26And it may even be in love.

00:41:29A character somewhat wanted in our family.

00:41:32Clare will be mortified.

00:41:34Clare Claremont, to express it delicately, is a damn bitch

00:41:38who had the very bad taste to fall pregnant

00:41:41after I inadvertently lay in her bed.

00:41:44I never loved her, or pretended to love her,

00:41:47so you can disabuse Miss Clare bloody Claremont of that.

00:41:55My God.

00:41:57Look at her.

00:41:59She's fine, aren't you, Allegra?

00:42:02She's filthy.

00:42:04Well, she's alive, unlike most of yours.

00:42:07Do you not think perhaps she would be better with her mother?

00:42:11Clare has no money.

00:42:13The child is illegitimate.

00:42:15In England, she would be grossly disadvantaged.

00:42:17In Italy, with a fair education and a settlement of 5,000 or 6,000,

00:42:22she may perhaps marry respectably.

00:42:28I do know what I do.

00:42:32Do ride, Shelley.

00:42:53What makes you right?

00:42:55My inability to prevent it.

00:42:58You?

00:43:00My dream of revolution,

00:43:02when the poor of every nation will rise up and throw off their chains.

00:43:11Your problem is your intellect.

00:43:13You gaze from your palace at the minnows below

00:43:16and you find their efforts meaningless.

00:43:18Their state unalterable, their misery unending,

00:43:21but it is not so.

00:43:23The material can be altered.

00:43:25No.

00:43:26All that holds us back is we ourselves.

00:43:28If we were not weak, we might be all we dream of.

00:43:31Oh, if we were not weak.

00:43:33But man is born wicked and dies a sinner.

00:43:37So you hold no hope.

00:43:39For what?

00:43:41We live a little and then...

00:43:44Good night.

00:43:47I believe in the perfectibility of man.

00:43:50You talk utopia, Shelley.

00:43:52You don't think anything can be changed?

00:43:54Oh, things may change.

00:43:56But whether our actions have any effect on the process

00:44:00is quite another matter.

00:44:02So if the gondola goes down,

00:44:04halfway across the lagoon, you'll simply accept it, will you?

00:44:08If the gondola goes down, I'll swim.

00:44:12You?

00:44:14You?

00:44:16I can't swim.

00:44:18You can't swim?

00:44:22What will you do?

00:44:24Well...

00:44:26I shall solve the great riddle, shan't I?

00:44:39Christ!

00:44:41I'd forgotten about her.

00:44:52Your hot milk, sir.

00:44:56You have been his lordship's man a long time, I think.

00:44:59Yes, I have, sir.

00:45:03Does it surprise you to see him fettered by a back-alley whore?

00:45:07On the contrary, sir.

00:45:09Any woman can manage Lord Byron.

00:45:12Excepting Lady Byron, of course.

00:45:15She couldn't get the hang of it at all.

00:45:18Ah, Fletcher.

00:45:20Pockham soda, if you please.

00:45:22My lord.

00:45:24So, how did you calm your courtesan?

00:45:27What did you say?

00:45:29Say? Why, nothing at all.

00:45:32It's an oratorical skill I call the eloquence of action.

00:45:37It's the one way I could silence my wife.

00:45:40Now...

00:45:42Here is something for you to read, if you would be gracious enough.

00:45:54No one has ever written a poem like that before.

00:46:01I just don't accept that there exists such a thing as a subject unsuited for verse.

00:46:07But now, at thirty years, my hair is grey.

00:46:12I wonder what it'll be like at forty.

00:46:15I thought of a peruk the other day.

00:46:18My heart is not much greener, and in short, I...

00:46:22have squandered my whole summer while t'was May.

00:46:27And feel no more the spirit to retort.

00:46:30I have spent my life...

00:46:33I have spent my life, both interest and principle,

00:46:39and deemed not what I deemed my soul invincible.

00:46:50What is the end of fame?

00:46:53Tis but to fill a certain portion of uncertain paper.

00:46:57Some liken it to climbing up a hill,

00:47:00whose summit, like all hills, is lost in vapour.

00:47:05For this men write, speak, preach, and heroes kill,

00:47:11and bards burn what they call their midnight taper,

00:47:14to have, when the original is dust,

00:47:18a name, a wretched picture,

00:47:23and worse, bust.

00:47:31You should not sit in solitude in Italy.

00:47:35You are needed in your own country.

00:47:44Mrs Fletcher, do please cure Ada of that filthy habit.

00:47:48Listen to me, Belle.

00:47:50She's making us look foolish.

00:47:53She is still a lady-in-waiting.

00:47:55She has quarters at the Palace of St James's.

00:47:58Why, the woman maintains the full sufficiency of her social circuit,

00:48:03despite everything she has done.

00:48:07And for the regent's fate I shall wear mauve, such a feminine colour.

00:48:12With a stole, perhaps.

00:48:15What do you think, sis?

00:48:17I think we have talked enough of gauzes and satins.

00:48:21I am surprised to find you're going to town at all.

00:48:26But the regent's fate I have to attend in my official what-not.

00:48:33I am surprised you can show your face in public.

00:48:36Dearest Belle, I never meant to harm you.

00:48:41You have destroyed my life.

00:48:45My daughter will never know her father.

00:48:48I am stared at wherever I go.

00:48:52Why, there are cartoons in the newspapers.

00:48:55But I have not wronged you. I have never abused you.

00:48:58Yes, you have.

00:49:00But what have I done?

00:49:05You had relations with my husband.

00:49:09Mama.

00:49:10It's all right, Medora.

00:49:12Medora? Oh, this is Medora.

00:49:16Why, I am surprised she has not got two heads.

00:49:21What do you want here?

00:49:23I want a confession. That's what I want.

00:49:26Why are you not contrite?

00:49:29Do you think that the laws that apply to others don't apply to Augusta Lee?

00:49:33I never meant to hurt you, Belle.

00:49:39You will tell me everything.

00:49:43It's their post, Fletcher.

00:49:46Not today, my lord.

00:49:56My sweet sister.

00:49:58We may have been very wrong,

00:50:00but I repent of nothing except that cursed marriage.

00:50:07It is heart-breaking.

00:50:10It is heart-breaking to think of our long separation,

00:50:13and, I am sure, more than punishment enough for our sins.

00:50:18And I reply, it seems so sad.

00:50:40Augusta Lee

00:51:03What are you doing?

00:51:06Here is the story of your life. See?

00:51:09You told me you could not read.

00:51:11I try. I take lessons.

00:51:14A lesson?

00:51:15Si. Then I read Lord Byron.

00:51:19Margarita, it's time for you to go.

00:51:22No. Why?

00:51:25I really am not interested in women who can read.

00:51:29Please, our time is over.

00:51:31Thank you very much. I enjoyed it.

00:51:34But you've become quite ungovernable.

00:51:36So, adieu.

00:51:40I kill you!

00:51:48Fletcher!

00:51:53Breakfast, please, Fletcher.

00:51:55Eggs, I think.

00:51:57Bring them along.

00:52:00Oh, Madonna! Oh, no!

00:52:03Let me go! Byron! I know right!

00:52:06You give your word.

00:52:08Very well, Tita.

00:52:39Here, here.

00:52:43Here and here.

00:52:45And Newstead Abbey finally is sold.

00:52:51For how long was I in the water, Fletcher?

00:52:53When I beat the Cavalier Mengalder at swimming?

00:52:56From half-past four till a quarter-past eight in the evening alone.

00:53:00Plus, I had a piece in the morning and another at ten at night.

00:53:04Plus, I had a piece in the morning and another at ten at night.

00:53:08It's not hard to come by, then.

00:53:11I've had a couple of hundreds. It's carnival.

00:53:14What I earn by my brain I spend on my bollocks.

00:53:35Come away. He's dangerous to look at.

00:53:53I do detest the English more with every year that passes.

00:53:57I harm nobody.

00:53:59I make love with but one woman at a time,

00:54:02and as quietly as possible.

00:54:05And the English lie through thick and thin

00:54:08and invent every kind of absurdity.

00:54:11Mmm. I'm fairly certain it's a Tintoretto.

00:54:14But in this light, I'm damned if I may be sure.

00:54:17Come and give me your opinion.

00:54:19I've no opinion on painting. I detest painting.

00:54:22I've no opinion on painting.

00:54:24I've no opinion on painting.

00:54:27I've no opinion on painting. I detest painting.

00:54:30The most pointless of all the arts.

00:54:56Ho!

00:54:58Ho!

00:55:03I grew tired of promiscuous concubinage,

00:55:06so I have quitted Venice.

00:55:13I went in pursuit of a contessa,

00:55:15a young beauty married to a rich old man of 60.

00:55:20Teresa is as fair as sunrise and as warm as noon.

00:55:24She wants me for her cavalieri servente.

00:55:28This is a curious Italian custom

00:55:30where a wife may take an admirer with the husband's full knowledge,

00:55:34so long as certain niceties are observed.

00:55:42I am permitted to hold her fan at the opera, for example.

00:55:48And I accompany her to mass on occasion,

00:55:51but absolutely nothing more.

00:55:55MUSIC CONTINUES

00:56:01I lived for a year at her palace in Ravenna,

00:56:04where I wrote a poem called Don Juan,

00:56:07which you may or may not like.

00:56:11I am run to fat, dear Augusta,

00:56:13and the crow's foot has been rather lavish of its indelible steps.

00:56:18My hair, though not gone, seems going,

00:56:21and my teeth remain only by way of courtesy.

00:56:25Silly Billy.

00:56:27So fretful about his appearance.

00:56:31I always believed the whole affair might terminate unexpectedly,

00:56:35for they are liberal with the knife in Ravenna.

00:56:38But had Count Guccioli murdered me,

00:56:40I should hardly have complained, for I am done with passion.

00:56:45Teresa is my last attachment.

00:56:51However, the marriage was annulled, by papal decree, no less.

00:56:57And we have come to Pisa, to the Casa Lanfranchi.

00:57:02We have acquaintance here,

00:57:04Shelley and his wife, some others from England.

00:57:09A circle of friends.

00:57:11The weather is splendid.

00:57:15Life is slow.

00:57:18It is all entirely congenial.

00:57:23Dearest Gus, when you write to me,

00:57:26tell me you love me.

00:57:29I miss you terribly.

00:57:40Do you know what I perpetually wonder?

00:57:44Gnosis.

00:57:48I perpetually wonder whether your carnal relations with my husband,

00:57:52continued after we were married.

00:57:54Oh, goodness me, no.

00:57:57Good heavens.

00:58:10Don Juan, indeed.

00:58:13You may imagine what that is like.

00:58:16A feast of indelicacy.

00:58:19Too bawdy for publication.

00:58:22It may be bawdy, but is it not good English?

00:58:26It may be profligate, but is it not life, is it not the thing?

00:58:30From Murray?

00:58:31No, from Junior Minister Hobhouse.

00:58:34His bricks still wet from the stews of Venice.

00:58:37And for the sake of his career...

00:58:39Don't give way to them.

00:58:40I will not give way to all the cant of Christendom.

00:58:43I will not submit to have Don Juan cut about.

00:58:46Christ!

00:58:47England is decrepit.

00:58:49Europe is decrepit.

00:58:50A worn-out portion of the globe.

00:58:52I don't know.

00:58:54There is Greece.

00:58:55Baroche is fighting in Greece.

00:58:57Well, well.

00:58:58Who would have thought Greeks could be heroes again?

00:59:01This is not lyric poetry, this is politics and battle.

00:59:04It will all amount to nothing as usual.

00:59:07Why will it all come to nothing?

00:59:09Because the forces of reaction are too strong.

00:59:12For God's sake, George, you must have hope.

00:59:14Hope?

00:59:15What's hope?

00:59:17The paint on the face of existence.

00:59:20The least touch of truth rubs it off.

00:59:23And then we see what a hollow-cheeked harlot we've got hold of.

00:59:28Gentlemen, come in.

00:59:31Williams, I think you know.

00:59:33And this is Edward Trelawney.

00:59:35My God!

00:59:37My corsair!

00:59:39The Greeks were besieging the Turkish garrison in the Acropolis.

00:59:43The Turks ran out of lead for their bullets.

00:59:46But they reckon they'd find some if they smashed open the columns of the Parthenon.

00:59:51When the Greeks heard this, they sent the Turks some lead,

00:59:54which was used to make the bullets, which were then shot back at them.

00:59:57That's what the Parthenon means to these Greek fellows.

01:00:00Well, Elgin should never have touched it.

01:00:03And that's why they're winning the inn.

01:00:06And why we ought to go.

01:00:10Come on.

01:00:13Contessa?

01:00:21Byron, there is bad news.

01:00:25Allegra is dead.

01:00:29Allegra?

01:00:32I'm so sorry.

01:00:34Your daughter is dead.

01:00:40Nobody will blame you.

01:00:44You think not?

01:00:48I'm certain the physicians did their best.

01:00:52Yes, I do.

01:00:57But without Miss Claremont will believe that she died of fever.

01:01:05God, I...

01:01:08I miss the child.

01:01:14Such brilliant, brilliant eyes.

01:01:22So, where do you think she is gone?

01:01:28Well...

01:01:33Great mystery.

01:01:38Allegra has solved it before us.

01:01:50Don't go to Greece.

01:01:53Why not?

01:01:55Because I've heard what it's like.

01:01:57Oh?

01:01:59What's it like?

01:02:02When Tripolis fell, the Greeks butchered 3,000 civilians.

01:02:07Pregnant women were ripped open.

01:02:10Their babes hacked out,

01:02:12their heads struck off and placed on the bodies of dogs.

01:02:17And this is the side we're supporting?

01:02:20It's barbaric.

01:02:23Mary, I've done nothing with my life except luxuriate.

01:02:29Even if it is barbaric, I must, for God's sake, do something.

01:02:38Her boat's gone down.

01:02:59They've found the body.

01:03:02But after ten days in the sea...

01:03:12He called it the Great Riddle.

01:03:18I lost two children.

01:03:23My mother died in childbirth.

01:03:25Claire's Allegra.

01:03:30Shelly's first wife.

01:03:34Now Shelly, too.

01:03:42It's not a riddle.

01:03:48It just hurts.

01:03:50It just hurts.

01:04:20It just hurts.

01:05:20THE GREAT RIDDLE

01:05:50THE GREAT RIDDLE

01:06:08Kill them again tomorrow, Peter.

01:06:17Damn this leg.

01:06:20I'll exchange legs if you'll give me some of your brains.

01:06:23You'd regret it.

01:06:25Sometimes I can feel my brains boiling,

01:06:28like poor Shelly's when we barbecued him.

01:06:32I'm supposed to administer the funds from London,

01:06:35but who am I to give them to?

01:06:38How do I turn a gang of bandits into an army?

01:06:42We came here to fight, but we've done nothing except drill.

01:06:47War turns out to be anything but glamorous, doesn't it?

01:06:50I've not seen war.

01:06:52But if I stay and miss a Longyear, I never shall.

01:06:56I'm going north. Find some action.

01:06:59Trelawney, don't go, please.

01:07:02You're my best officer.

01:07:04This is pointless. I want to fight, not...

01:07:07...dress up and march around.

01:07:10Bath's ready, my lord.

01:07:12Thank you, Fletcher.

01:07:14That will be nice.

01:07:41Do you think we will win?

01:07:46I don't know why we're fighting to tell the truth.

01:07:54But it is at least something, isn't it?

01:08:10They will not go on without payment.

01:08:40Come on.

01:09:04All right?

01:09:06Come on.

01:09:08A bit more.

01:09:09A bit more.

01:09:13Come on.

01:09:14Three more minutes.

01:09:16Come on.

01:09:17Come on.

01:09:34This rain don't seem to stop, does it, my lord?

01:09:39No, Fletcher.

01:09:43It's much like knots in that respect.

01:09:48But they don't play cricket here.

01:09:51Not that we know of, my lord, no.

01:09:58Sometimes I dream of cricket.

01:10:06I find I dream of women rather more.

01:10:12Yes.

01:10:17I dream of them, too.

01:10:48Hamburg.

01:10:57I learned it at the court of Ali Pasha in Albania.

01:11:05I sang it to the wives of the gentry of England and Ireland...

01:11:10...as they undressed and stood before me.

01:11:17I sang it to the wives of the gentry of England and Ireland...

01:11:22...as they undressed and stood before me.

01:12:25Any change?

01:12:26No, doctor.

01:12:34It is a mild marsh fever.

01:12:36We shall bleed him and he will recover.

01:12:47We shall bleed him and he will recover.

01:14:04Fucking Greece.

01:14:17Fuck.

01:14:48Yeah.

01:14:49Oh, fuck.

01:14:55Oh, fuck me.

01:14:56Fuck me.

01:15:04Fuck.

01:15:19lived in vain. My mind may lose its force, my blood its fire, and my frame perish even

01:15:26in conquering pain. But there is that within me which shall tire torture and time, and

01:15:34breathe when I expire. Something unearthly which they deem not of, like the remembered

01:15:41tone of a mute lyre, shall on their softened spirits sink, and move in hearts all rocky

01:15:49now the late remorse of love.

Byron | BBC Biography Drama Part 02 | Subtitles

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Byron BBC Miniseries 2003

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