Byron was a real person, one of the most important Romantic poets. In the play, he never appears onstage, but he is mentioned so often that he is a character in his own right. Septimus’s school friend from Cambridge, he sleeps with both Lady Croom and Mrs. Chater while a guest at Sidley Park.
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Lord Byron Character Timeline in Arcadia
The timeline below shows where the character Lord Byron appears in Arcadia. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Act 1, Scene 2
...real historical figure who wrote novels and had a relationship with the Romantic poet Lord Byron. Bernard praises Hannah’s book as “shedding reflected light on the character of Lord Byron,” and...
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Bernard asks Hannah about some details relating to Lord Byron, and she realizes that Byron, not Chater, may be Bernard’s ultimate goal in coming to...
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...he thinks that, though this copy of “The Couch of Eros” is inscribed to Septimus, Byron used it and marked it up to write a review in a newspaper called the...
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...to the negative review in the Piccadilly. Bernard believes that these letters were meant for Byron, and also that Byron killed Chater in the duel.
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...enough of him, but as she tries to get him to leave, she mentions that Byron and Septimus were at the same college at Cambridge, at exactly the same time. Thrilled...
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Act 1, Scene 3
...eats a piece. Thomasina criticizes the author of the Latin, who Septimus explains is Lord Byron. We learn that Byron is currently a guest at Sidley Park. In Thomasina’s (usually accurate)...
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Thomasina understands that Septimus is sad that Lady Croom likes Byron. She continues on with her creative ideas about the intersections of math and nature: “If...
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...his wife—meaning Chater’s wife. Chater’s new anger has to do with his awareness, from overhearing Byron, that Septimus wrote a brutally negative review of his first book. Lady Croom enters, hoping...
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Act 1, Scene 4
Bernard enters, thrilled to have discovered a note about “The Couch of Eros” penciled into Byron’s satirical poem “English Bards and Scotch Reviewers” (which Lady Croom mentioned in Scene 3). Bernard...
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Valentine cuts in to mention that he knows that Byron stayed at Sidley Park in 1809 because of the game books. Bernard, stunned, exits in...
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Act 2, Scene 5
Bernard reads his paper about the Chater-Byron duel to the Coverly siblings. Partway through, Hannah enters with a copy of a letter...
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...talentless. Valentine mentions that statistical analyses of the Piccadilly review didn’t convincingly connect it to Byron’s other writings. Bernard, by now very angry, lays out in a monologue why poetry and...
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Act 2, Scene 6
Jellaby delivers tea and a letter from Byron to Septimus. Lady Croom doesn’t want Septimus to read the letter from Byron, whom she...
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Act 2, Scene 7
Hannah enters, noting the group’s unusual outfits. Bernard’s theory about Byron has even made the tabloids, but she still thinks it’s silly. Chloë and Gus exit....
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...thinks that Septimus and Thomasina didn’t understand this major idea. Hannah quotes some lines from Byron that describe an apocalyptic vision.
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Thomasina asks Septimus if she’ll marry Byron. He’s doubtful. Augustus, bored with the lesson, leaves in a huff. Thomasina brings up a...
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...conversation. Thomasina is just a week away from turning 17, and she wants to marry Byron. Septimus and Lady Croom gossip about Byron and Caroline Lamb.
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...of Eros.” This revelation disproves Bernard’s entire theory about Chater’s death in a duel with Byron.
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...think if any of his claims are true. He still thinks the Piccadilly reviews were Byron’s (though we know them to be Septimus’s), but the exciting part of his discovery is...
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