Byron Caricature

A cartoon published when Byron went into "exile," voluntarily leaving England following the scandal surrounding his divorce and incestuous affair. The cartoonist satirizes Byron (standing in boat) as an exaggeration of the heroic type he created in literature. He's leaving the shores of England aboard a boat filled with adoring females as one woman Byron left behind waves from the distant shore.

Byron's dialogue:
"All my faults perchance thou knowest--
all my madness none can know;--
Fare the well, thus desecrated--
From every loving tie
Scarred in heart--and lone--and blighted--
more than this I scarce can be!"

Byron's excessive melancholy and "blighted condition" is contradicted by the lecherous attention he receives from the women and the plentious provisions stored in the boat--numerous bottles of wine.

The women in the boat cling to him, one calling out, "Come sit on my knee, my love. I'm afraid you'll fall overboard!"

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