William Shakespeare abandoned his wife Anne Hathaway and three children at their family home when he moved to London to build his career. A literary star was born all right, but Anne was left to fend for herself and her young family. At the end of a long, loveless marriage, the only thing the Bard bequeathed his wife in his will was “the second-best bed” in their home. British Romantic poet Lord Byron was a serial womaniser, and some of the relationships with his lovers put his violent, abusive tendencies on display. Sexual scandals surrounded him. There were rumours of an affair with his half-sister. His wife levelled accusations of domestic violence against him. Mired in debt and hit by an avalanche of scandals, Byron banished himself from England and travelled around Europe, probably asking the eternal question, “What exile can from himself flee?”