Editing Richard Francis Burton (section)

===Early life===
{{expand section | with = a broader, yet accurate account derived from multiple secondary sources, that begins to reduce the reliance of the section on Wright (1906), offering instead broader and more recent scholarship | small = no | date = May 2025}}
Richard Burton was born in [[Torquay]], [[Devon]], on 19 March 1821; in his autobiography, he incorrectly claimed to have been born in the family home of Barham House in [[Elstree]], [[Hertfordshire]].<ref>[[#Lovell|Lovell]], p. 1.</ref><ref>Wright (1906), [https://web.archive.org/web/20080820044951/http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/b/burton/richard/b97zw/chapter1.html#section1 vol. 1, p. 37] .</ref> Burton was baptised on 2 September 1821 at Elstree Church in [[Borehamwood]], Hertfordshire.<ref>{{cite book|last=Page|first=William|title=A History of the County of Hertford|publisher=Constable|year=1908|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=43292&strquery=elstree|pages=vol. 2, pp. 349–351|no-pp=true|isbn=978-0-7129-0475-9|access-date=15 October 2007|archive-date=28 September 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928004322/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=43292&strquery=elstree|url-status=dead}}</ref> His father, [[Lieutenant colonel (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant-Colonel]] Joseph Netterville Burton, was an [[Anglo-Irish people|Anglo-Irish]] officer in the [[British Army]]'s [[36th (Herefordshire) Regiment of Foot]]. Joseph, through his mother's family, the Campbells of [[Tuam]], was a first cousin of [[Henry Pearce Driscoll]] and [[Richard Graves (theologian)#Family|Eliza Graves]]. Burton's mother, Martha Baker, was the daughter and co-heiress of Richard Baker, a wealthy Hertfordshire [[squire]] whom Burton was named after. He had two siblings, Maria Katherine Elizabeth Burton (who married Lieutenant-General [[Henry William Stisted|Sir Henry William Stisted]]) and Edward Joseph Netterville Burton.<ref>Wright (1906), [https://archive.today/20120710153620/http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/b/burton/richard/b97zw/chapter1.html#section2 vol. 1, p. 38] .</ref>

<!--Paragraphs 2-5 corrected to appearing sources, all unsourced material marked as needing citations.-->In his early life, Burton grew up between [[Elstree, England]], the home of Richard's esteemed and wealthy namesake, Richard Baker, and, initially, [[Tours, France]], the latter after their father sought a better climate for his asthma.<ref name = WrightChI/> The transition to Tours appears to have been before the death of Baker, on 16 September 1824.<ref name = WrightChI/><ref>In Wright's presentation of these historical events, the family's transition to Tours is presented in Section 2, "Tours and Elstree", ahead of the presentation of the death of Baker, which is in Section 3, "Death of Richard Baker, 16th September 1824", see Wright, Ch. I, op. cit.</ref> Burton was looked after while very young, in both England and France, by the family's "Hertfordshire nurse, Mrs. Ling, a good, but obstinately English soul"; his formal, early education began at a school in Tours, taught by "a lame Irishman named Clough", which was followed, when "for the children’s sake" the family moved to a house in the Rue De L’Archeveche, "the best street" in Tours, after which "[t]he little Burtons... attended the academy of a Mr. John Gilchrist, who grounded them in Latin and Greek".<ref name = WrightChI/> 

The Colonel, earlier preoccupied with (but also sustaining injury by) [[boar hunting]], eventually began a pursuit of the study of [[chemistry]], including experimental, that would persist for some time, while, during forays "into society", becoming known for his ability to "inexpressibly shoc[k]... sensitive company" in his directness of speech (e.g., publicly referring to “an adulteress” in that way), a characteristic that Thomas Wright, in his ''Life'', suggests the son having learned from the father.<ref name = WrightChI/> The Burton family returned to England in 1829, and Richard and his brother Edward were sent to a [[Preparatory school (United Kingdom)|preparatory school]] at [[Richmond Green]] run by a [[The Reverend|Reverend]] Charles Delafosse, a school that Wright describes in his ''Life'' as having "fees [that] were high", and the school as being "badly conducted" with the boys being "both ill-taught and ill-fed".<ref name = WrightChI/> 

By the time measles broke out in the school, the Colonel had "tired of Richmond", and after arranging tutors for the children—a Rev. H. R. Du Pre for the boys, and a "peony-faced lady named Miss Ruxton" for Maria—the family moved to [[Blois|Blois, France]] (Du Pre continuing tenaciously, but Ruxton returning home, having "g[iven] up in despair").<ref name = WrightChI/> The time in Blois would amount to a year, after which, via [[Marseille, France]] and "Leghorn"<ref name = WrightChI/> ([[Livorno, Italy]]), on the coast of [[Tuscany]],<ref>{{Cite American Heritage Dictionary|Livorno|access-date=1 March 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l4V50jYkWRgC&pg=PA63 |title=The World Today: Concepts and Regions in Geography |chapter=Regions of the Realm |page=63 |first1=H. J. |last1=de Blij |first2=Peter |last2=O. Muller |first3=Jan |last3=Nijman |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |year=2010 |isbn=9780470646380}}</ref>), the family settled in [[Pisa, Italy|Pisa]], allowing the boys to become "proficient in Italian and drawing", and to begin the violin (against which Richard would rebel, and in which Edward would excel).<ref name = WrightChI/> By July 1832, they were in [[Siena, Italy|Siena]] and [[Perugia, Italy|Perugia]], then [[Florence, Italy|Florence]], [[Rome, Italy|Rome]] and [[Naples, Italy|Naples]], then [[Sorrento, Italy|Sorrento]] and [[Capri, Italy|Capri]] (with Rev. Du Pre yet in tow, and the Colonel still devoted to pursuits related to "[o]xygen, abandoning... mass” to become a gas).<ref name = WrightChI/> At this juncture, the boys are described as having become "generally ungovernable", with escapades that included "a visit to a house of poor reputation" and thwarted whipping by father and tutor.<ref name = WrightChI/>

Colonel Burton quit England again for France in 1836, for [[Pau, France|Pau]] in the south, and soon again after, for Italy, first [[Pisa, Italy|Pisa]], then [[Lucca, Italy|Lucca]], where the sons divided time "ruffl[ing] it with a number of dissolute medical students" learning "several quite original wickednesses", and time spent under the influence of their parents, in "more wholesome society", in the latter case with introductions to the painter [[Louis William Desanges|Louis Desanges]], to "Helen Croly, daughter of... <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[George Croly]], author of] ''Salathiel''", and to Virginia Gabriel, later a [[composer]], and daughter of an English [[Major-general]].<ref name = WrightChI>Wright (1906), [https://web.archive.org/web/20080820044951/http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/b/burton/richard/b97zw/chapter1.html#section4 vol. 1, p. 52ff]. "Being subject to asthma, Colonel Burton now left England and hired a chateau called Beausejour situated on an eminence near Tours, where there was an English colony. For several years the family fluctuated between Tours and Elstree...".</ref><ref>{{citation |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Gabriel,_Mary_Ann_Virginia_(DNB00)|author=Middleton, Lydia|title=Gabriel, Mary Ann Virginia|volume=20 |access-date=14 May 2014}}</ref> 

As well, during his youth, he allegedly had a sexual relationship with a [[Romani people|Roma]] girl and learned the rudiments of the [[Romani language]].{{cn|date=May 2025}} The peregrinations of Burton's youth may have encouraged him to regard himself as an outsider for much of his life.{{says who|date=May 2025}}{{speculation inline|date=May 2025}} He would later write,{{or|date=May 2025}} "Do what thy manhood bids thee do, from none but self expect applause".<ref name="Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî' 1870">{{cite book |last1=Burton |first1=R. F. |year=1911 |title=The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî |edition=Eight |location=Portland |publisher=Thomas B. Mosher |url=https://archive.org/details/kasdahofhjabdely00burt |chapter=Chapter VIII |pages=[https://archive.org/details/kasdahofhjabdely00burt/page/44 44]–51 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/kasdahofhjabdely00burt/page/50}}</ref>

<!--Paragraph 7-10 corrected to appearing sources, all unsourced material marked as needing citations.-->Throughout the foregoing period, Burton had ample opportunity to learn languages, modern and ancient, for which he had demonstrated aptitude; prior to departing for university, he had become acquainted with written, ancient Greek and Latin,<ref name = WrightChI/> and had become fluent in [[French language|French]], [[Italian language|Italian]], and modern Greek,<ref name=WrightChII/> quickly learning these as well as [[Neapolitan language|Neapolitan]] and several dialects.{{cn|date=May 2025}} According to biographer [[Ed Rice]], during Burton's days at university, he would<blockquote>sti[r] the bile of the [[Don (academia)|dons]] by speaking real—that is, Roman—Latin instead of the artificial type peculiar to England, and [by speaking] [[Greek language|Greek]] Romaically, with the accent of [[Athens]], as he had learned it from a Greek merchant at [[Marseille]], as well as [knowing] the classical forms. Such a linguistic feat was a tribute to Burton's remarkable ear and memory, for he was only a teenager when... in Italy and southern France."<ref name="er">{{cite book |last1=Rice |first1=Ed |title=Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton: the secret agent who made the pilgrimage to Mecca, discovered the Kama Sutra, and brought the Arabian nights to the West |date=1990 |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |location=New York |isbn=978-0684191379 |page=22}}</ref></blockquote>

In October 1840,<!--October, PER CITED SOURCE.--> he [[Matriculation|matriculated]] at [[Trinity College, Oxford]].<ref name=WrightChII/> Before getting a room at the college, Burton was coached by [[William Alexander Greenhill]] and by a "Dr. Ogle";<ref name=WrightChII/> he lived for a short time in the house of Greenhill, a doctor at the [[Radcliffe Infirmary]].{{cn|date=May 2025}} Wright, in his ''Life'', notes that Burton "spent his first months, not in studying, but in rowing, [and] fencing"—in the latter case, in the "fencing saloons" of an Italian and a Scotsman, with mastery of [[fencing foil|foil]] and [[broad-sword]]<ref name=WrightChII/>—to which he added [[falconry]].{{cn|date=May 2025}} As well, he had engaged in "shooting the college rooks, and breaking the rules generally", and, despite his expressed respect, in pranks "at the expense of [a] Dr. Jenkins".<ref name=WrightChII/> 

For all the experiences and education Burton brought with him to Oxford, he described his reception there as being unpleasant, and disparaged its educational offerings, stating that the "college teaching for which one was obliged to pay... was of the most worthless description", with "[t]wo hours a day... regularly wasted", noting that "those who read for honours... choose and pay a private coach".<ref name=WrightChII/> On a personal level, he describes having "grown a splendid moustache... the envy of all the boys abroad", that, despite his mentors Greenhill and Ogle advising removal, was only shaved after being given formal college orders;<ref name=WrightChII/> he describes having<blockquote>already formed strong ideas upon the Shaven Age of England, when her history, with some brilliant exceptions, such as Marlborough, Wellington and Nelson, was at its meanest.<ref name=WrightChII/></blockquote> On being laughed at by a fellow undergraduate, he responded by challenging him to a [[duel]].<ref name=WrightChII/> While there, he sat under the Christian teaching of [[John Henry Newman]], "[t]he only preacher Burton would listen to";<ref name=WrightChII/> Greenhill, Burton's mentor, was Newman's [[churchwarden]].{{cn|date=May 2025}} 

Still, Burton "longed to excel as a linguist, and particularly in Oriental languages", and sought to learn [[Arabic]], approaching the [[Regius Professor]]—whose retort was that professors did not teach individuals—and then going it alone, with "a little assistance from the Spanish scholar [[Pascual de Gayangos y Arce|Don Pascual de Gayangos]]".<ref name=WrightChII/> In April 1842, Burton attended a [[Steeplechase (horse racing)|steeplechase]] event at the Oxford races, an act forbidden "at the last moment" by the college; the culprits being brought before the same on the morning following the event, "the dons having lectured Burton, he began lecturing them"—in particular, observing that "young men ought not to be treated like children".<ref name=WrightChII/> As such, while all other offenders were [[Rustication (academia)|"rusticated" (temporarily expelled)]], Burton was instead permanently expelled from Oxford.<ref name=WrightChII>Wright (1906), [https://web.archive.org/web/20080820044257/http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/b/burton/richard/b97zw/chapter2.html Chapter II, "October 1840-April 1842 / Oxford", Sections 6 and 7]. The material in support of his expulsion clearly draws from §7; Chapter II, on the whole, is devoted to Burton's Oxford experiences.</ref>