No, not Richard Burton the film actor and husband of Elizabeth Taylor! Most people reading this have probably never heard of Sir Richard Burton. Yet he was one of the most colourful characters of 19th Century Britain. Actually, he would probably have resented that description, having spent his early years in France and much of his later life travelling in the East. Like many another vital and driven young Englishman, he felt less at home in England with the English than anywhere else.
Soldier; master linguist who spoke 29 languages; explorer; swordsman and spy, Burton risked death as a non-Muslim in making the Hajj to Mecca in Muslim disguise and journeyed with Speke to Lake Tanganykia in search of the source of the Nile. But he is probably best known as an early translator of the Arabian Knights and of the Kama Sutra. Indeed, erotic literature was one of Burton's great fascinations and his knowledge of erotic Eastern literature and poetry unrivalled at the time.
Although he was a disreputable figure who mischievously claimed to have broken all of the 10 Commandments, Burton was patently a great man and was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1886, largely for his feats as an explorer and geographer, particularly in the mysterious heartlands of Central Africa. It is not uncommon for outsiders and adventurers to achieve social recognition, but Burton seemingly remained wedded to his rebel status. Regarded as 'Satanic' for his intense and intimidating appearance, his un-English respect for foreigners, his interest in the cultures of the East and his contempt for petty moralism, Burton exemplified the hidden wishes of his times, doubtless without any desire to do so. He was a great man and one has to ask why our times are so petty by comparison.
The image of the rebel is burned deep in the Western psyche. The great irony, the grit in the sand of Western morals, is that our cultural conformity is built around a rebel, Jesus. All young men think they are Jesus - or rather the Jesus they see is the great, misunderstood critic of cant and hypocrisy, the outsider who ought to be king but is too great for the pharisees and rulers. The 19th Century version of this perennial adolescent inspiration was the Romantic movement which created the image of the 'artist': brilliant, misunderstood, sensitive, so much more interesting than the rational and prudent mediocrities that surrounded him - and it usually was a him! For men of course is the added attraction that the image of the 'rebel' is often sexually attractive, a way for young bucks to show their virility and challenge the old animals. One day, of course they grow old, become the establishment; they cut their hair, only to be challenged by the next generation.
Many of the Romantics of course could indulge this stereotype because they were rich children who could dabble in poetry, even experience temporary poverty, without any real risk, in great contrast to the art of previous centuries which was either produced for patrons and employers, or as a leisure activity. Ironically, the history of Western art has been that of the creator marketing him or herself. The image of the 'lone rebel genius' was successfully updated and still lives on in the impeccably coiffeured fake rebels of pop music.
Yet this masks the fact that individuality is being eroded at remarkable speed. In fact modern media and arts are a major cause of the loss of individuality, while pretending to represent and further it. When misled by our dying arts, we are a nation of fake rebels, conformist individuals, people who know their rights yet have nothing to say.
For Romanticism on its own is all image. Lord Byron re-created the idea of the 'Satanic' individual, shocking polite society while embodying its deepest wishes. And a comparable later figure like Aleistair Crowley showed a comparable range of activities - scholar, gentleman and acrobat! Yet while Byron had little originality of mind (for all his good qualities) and Crowley was a strange mixture of modern and reactionary, Burton still showed the vigorous influence of the 18th Century Enlightenment. He wanted to know, experience, understand. Burton was a skilled draftsman and used this skill in his botanical illustrations. He combined his wanderlust with his scientific mind in his anthropological studies. Where the 18th Century Europeans had looked at old ruined temples in Italy, Sicily and Greece, Burton observed ancient civilisations still thriving. He was more interested in life than in his ego. This is a classic sign of the 'daimon' - the inspiring genius that drives a person to live a life in the true sense.
I strongly encourage everyone to read Fawn Brodie's fascinating, gripping and often hilarious biography of Burton, The Devil Drives, which reveals his personal tragedies and struggles and his waggish sense of humour. For Burton was also one of the great raconteurs of his age.
It is a melancholy experience to read about the British Empire of the 19th Century. The British did terrible things as an Imperial power yet also magnificent things, yet we have little right to judge them because our world is smaller. Most British people today are far less cosmopolitan than the many thousands who lived in India through a military career or otherwise as part of the administrative structure of the Raj. We think we understand geopolitcs but we live in MacWorld; in the Internet age, it is too easy to carry ourselves around everywhere we go.
There were indeed arrogant racists among the British, as there were and are among all peoples. (Being conquered in war does not suddenly turn a people into saints of the church of liberalism, far from it). Yet there were many like Burton - honest people who took a deep interest in the languages, literature, religion and society of the people whom they temporarily 'ruled'. They were in many respects far more individual and far more 'multi-cultural' than the bland though impeccably politically correct clones which modern education and media produce, unless actively resisted.
Sir Richard Burton's tomb is in a churchyard in Mortlake in South West London. It is unique - a stone imitation of an Arab tent with the folds of canvas replicated in sculpture. As you climb up the ladder you can peer into the tomb through a window you can see interesting objects including a painting of Mary Magdalene. Another great Englishman, polymath and traveller, Dr John Dee, Queen Elizabeth's astrologer and the original 007, lived in Mortlake and was buried not far from Burton's tomb.
Contemporary spirituality and religion, and contemporary science and pop culture both thrive on the generic and seek to turn us into a mass of faceless consumers in search of products, who get (temporarily) angry when our rights are infringed.
How do we learn to get our own face and our own accent back? Stage 1 - learn to look, really look at what is around you. Stage 2 - stop pretending you know what you don't know. Stage 3 - resist being told what to feel by the media. After that, personality is possible, it just takes a bit of risk and effort.
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