![]() The incident which occurred in the last few weeks before Byron's death, is another matter, however. William Parry, one of Byron's companions on his visit to the Greek town of Mesolongion (where Byron had hurried in order to personally take the side of the Greeks in their fight for freedom against the Turks), describes how Byron suddenly swayed and sank to the floor after drinking cognac punch and cider. |
'A minute later his teeth were clamped together, he was speechless and unconscious and he suffered violent convulsions. [...] His face was distorted and twisted to one side.'
Vorberg adds his opinion on this: |
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If we look at the passages in which Byron writes of symptoms which have some similarity to epilepsy, we must come to the conclusion that the poet did not suffer from chronic epilepsy.
It is, however, probable that he did suffer psychogenic convulsions and other nervous attacks, and had an epileptic seizure, which can be classed an occasional convulsion, two months before his death. |