How Hot Was Lord Byron?

Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society

History Hit

Scandal, Sex, Education, History, Society

4.8 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 26 December 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How 'mad, bad and dangerous to know' was Lord Byron really?

We know the Romantic poet had a bit of a reputation, but how true was it? And how unusual would his behaviour have been?

In this episode from our series on the worst f*ckboys in history, we're digging into Byron's relationships with Andrew Stauffer, President of the Byron Society of America, professor and chair of the Department of English at the University of Virginia, and author of 'Byron: A Life in Ten Letters'.

This episode was edited by Tom Delargy and produced by Sophie Gee. The senior producer was Charlotte Long.

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Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello again, my lovely betwixters. It's me. Do you remember earlier this year when we went
0:04.6	completely mad and we did a betwixt live show? Well, it went so well that we are now doing it
0:10.7	again next year. Only we are doing two shows. We have one in Edinburgh on the 23rd of May and one in
0:17.6	London Town on the 25th of May. And tickets are available right now, just in time for Christmas. Go to Fanefanef-A-N-E.com.com. And we will see you there. Hello, my lovely betwixters. It's me, Kate Lister. Welcome back to betwixt the sheets. And if you're a newbie, hello, take a seat.
0:38.3	We're very pleased to have you.
0:39.5	But we do have to let you know.
0:41.0	This is an adult podcast spoken by adults to other adults about adulty things in an
0:44.1	adulty way, going arrange an adult subjects and you should be an adult too.
0:46.9	Oh, we do that so we all feel much, much safer and less triggered, right?
0:51.3	Okay, let's proceed with caution together.
0:58.6	Okay. triggered, right? Okay, let's proceed with caution together. They named thee before me, an knell to mine ear, a shudder comes o'er me, why wert thou so dear?
1:05.7	They know not I knew thee. Who knew thee too well? Long, long shall I rue thee too deeply to tell. In secret we met,
1:14.5	in silence I grieve, that thy heart could forget thy spirit deceive. If I should meet thee after long
1:20.9	years, how should I greet thee with silence and tears? Huh, well that was Lord Byron, the man himself, the famous romantic rogue, the heart-breaking
1:34.7	chaos goblin who is always falling in and out of love and then bitching about it.
1:40.8	This is a man who certainly has a reputation.
1:47.3	And his own word in the dictionary to describe his moody sex appeal byronic. But is it fair to call him a fuckboy?
1:54.0	Music Hello and welcome back to Betwixt the Shades, the History of Sex Scandal and Society with me, Kate Lister.
2:21.1	I've got to confess, I've always had a little bit of a thing for Lord Byron.
2:25.1	I know he's mad, bad, dangerous to know, but even so, I just know that I would have been one of those dopey girls following him across Europe going,
2:33.2	but I can change him. No, you across Europe going, but I can change him.
2:35.0	No, you can't, Kate. Nobody can change him his allure and to himself. Sorry, he got a bit carried away
	...

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