Dr. Kate Lister

So he then becomes a hero in death.

And he was quite widely mourned as well.

It was a big shock when he died because he was only 36.

Although he was considered a very scandalous person, when his body was brought back, the streets were lined with people, everyday people, not just aristocrats, people that really saw him as a champion of the working man.

In some ways, he was.

His first speech in Parliament as a young man was to speak in favour of the machine breakers in the north of England who had been

breaking machines that were going to put them out of work and the English government was trying to make that a capital offence and he goes in and he sticks up for them he did have an affinity for the underdog throughout most of his life so there is a huge outpouring of grief when he dies huge he's such a curious legend in British literature and poetry because his poetry isn't read anymore or it's not studied in school or anything and yet he's just supremely famous still

I know, he's more famous for his life and his lifestyle than his poems now, I think.

But I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.

I've spoken to lots of Byron scholars that get really pissed off with the mad, bad and dangerous to know reputation because they feel it detracts from his work, from what he wrote and what he said.

And I can completely see why they think that.

But also, I would argue that he was very aware of his reputation.

And he cultivated this celebrity image.

And I don't think that you can have one without the other.

This image that he had of the tragic, romantic Lothario was absolutely central to his work as well.

And he knew that and he cultivated it.

Yes, exactly, exactly.

Just the music.

We just want to know about the music.

It's that, can you separate the art from the artist discussion?