''Don Leon'' is a 19th-century poem attributed to

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and has been regarded as among the ...

celebrating homosexual love and making a plea for tolerance. At the time of its writing, homosexuality and

sodomy Sodomy () or buggery (British English) is generally anal or oral sex between people, or sexual activity between a person and a non-human animal ( bestiality), but it may also mean any non- procreative sexual activity. Originally, the term ''sod ...

were capital crimes in

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

, and the nineteenth century saw many men hanged for indulging in homosexual acts. It is not known who wrote it, although there are several theories. The case for it being written directly from within the Shelley–Byron circle is increasingly gaining ground in the 21st century. As it includes in its narrative and notes several incidents that happened after Lord Byron's 1824 death, it obviously could not have been written by him. From internal dating, it was probably written in the 1830s. It was published in 1866 by

William Dugdale Sir William Dugdale (12 September 1605 – 10 February 1686) was an English antiquary and herald. As a scholar he was influential in the development of medieval history as an academic subject. Life Dugdale was born at Shustoke, near Coles ...

, who appears to have believed initially in the attribution to Byron as he attempted to use it to blackmail Byron's family. It was reprinted in a Fortune Press limited edition in 1934 and immediately fell foul of the obscenity laws; the edition was seized and ordered destroyed, although several copies escaped the destruction and come up every so often on the rare book market. The 1934 edition was reprinted in facsimile by the Arno Press in 1975. In 2017 Pagan Press published a new edition of Don Leon & Leon to Annabella. All surviving editions, from Dugdale to Fortune Press, were collated for the text. This is the first edition to include critical material in addition to the texts of the poems: a Foreword by editor John Lauritsen, essays by Louis Crompton and Hugh Hagius, correspondence between Joseph Wallfield and G. Wilson Knight, and a bibliography. The original notes to Don Leon contain many passages, some of them long, in Latin, Greek, German, French, and Italian; all of these have been translated into English. The extended poem is well constructed and extremely well written, showing evidence of a classical education and knowledge of the processes of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, as well as an intimate knowledge of the poet Lord Byron's life, including his youthful homosexual adventures on his travels 1809–11 and his romantic friendship with the beautiful choirboy John Edlestone whilst at

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

. This has led to the supposition that it may have been written by an intimate friend of Lord Byron's – however not by one who was concerned about his posthumous reputation. It was not common knowledge that the poet was what we would now call bisexual until the twentieth century.

References

Louis Crompton Louis Crompton (April 5, 1925 – July 11, 2009) was a Canadian scholar, professor, author, and pioneer in the instruction of queer studies. Born to Master Mariner Clarence and Mabel Crompton, Crompton received an M.A. in mathematics from the U ...

, "''Don Leon'', Byron and homosexual law reform", in ''Literary visions of homosexuality'' (ed. Stuart Kellogg), Volume 6 of Research on homosexuality, Routledge, 1983, , p. 53 * Steven Marcus, "The other Victorians: a study of sexuality and pornography in mid-nineteenth-century

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

", Transaction Publishers, 2008, , p. 76 G.Wilson Knight, Lord Byron’s Marriage: The Evidence of Asterisks (Routledge 1957), pp. 159–201 Doris Langley Moore, The Late Lord Byron (John Murray 1961, rpt. 1976 Doris Langley Moore, Lord Byron Accounts Rendered (John Murray, 1974),

External links

LORD BYRON (1788-1824): Don Leon (c. 1823-36)

DON LEON Edited by Peter Cochran

Byron's Boyfriends

Pagan Press page on Don Leon
{{authority control 1830s poems 1866 poems Censored books English poems LGBT literature in the United Kingdom LGBT poetry Lord Byron Male homosexuality Obscenity controversies in literature Works of uncertain authorship