Lady Caroline Lamb

Lady Caroline Lamb (née Ponsonby; 13 November 178525 January 1828) was an Anglo-Irish aristocrat and novelist, best known for Glenarvon, a Gothic novel. In 1812, she had an affair with Lord Byron, whom she described as "mad, bad, and dangerous to know". Her husband was the Honourable William Lamb, who after her death became 2nd Viscount Melbourne and British prime minister.

Family background

Lamb was the only daughter of Frederick Ponsonby, 3rd Earl of Bessborough, an Anglo-Irish peer, and Henrietta, Countess of Bessborough. She was known as the Honourable Caroline Ponsonby until her father succeeded to the earldom in 1793. While her brother, Frederick Ponsonby, was severely injured in the Battle of Waterloo, in the days after the battle, she had an affair with the Duke of Wellington.

She was related to other leading society ladies and was the niece of Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, and cousin by marriage of Annabella, Lady Byron. She was related to Sarah Ponsonby, one half of the Ladies of Llangollen, and Diana, Princess of Wales.

She was never Viscountess Melbourne because she died before Melbourne succeeded to the peerage.

Youth and education

thumb|left|Lady Caroline's mother, [[Henrietta Ponsonby, Countess of Bessborough|Henrietta, Countess of Bessborough, by Angelica Kauffman in 1793]]

thumb|[[Portrait of Lord Melbourne (Lawrence)|Portrait of Lord Melbourne by Thomas Lawrence, 1805.]]

As a small child, Lady Caroline was considered delicate and for the sake of her health spent much of her time in the country. She travelled with her mother and family to Italy, where she recovered from an illness caused by worms that nearly proved fatal. After returning with her mother to England, she rejoined a lively group of children who lived at Devonshire House and Roehampton. These were her cousins, the children of William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire by his first marriage, to Lady Georgiana Spencer. There were three children, Lady Georgiana ("Little G"), Lady Harriet Cavendish ("Hary-o"), and Lord Hartington ("Hart", later the 6th Duke of Devonshire). There were also two children by his mistress and second wife, Lady Elizabeth Foster: these were Augustus Clifford and Caroline St Jules, later wife of George Lamb.

During childhood, Lady Caroline became particularly close to Lady Harriet, who was three months older. She claimed that as a child, Lady Caroline considered being able to wash a dog one of her most satisfying accomplishments. While many scholars have accepted this (and other claims made by Lady Morgan), published works of correspondence about her family members make it extremely unlikely.

Her grandmother, the Dowager Lady Spencer, was dedicated to promoting education and later employed the children's governess as her own companion. This was Miss Selina Trimmer, daughter of Mrs Sarah Trimmer, an author of moral tales for children. She taught them an extensive curriculum. A published letter that Lady Caroline wrote on 31 October 1796, just before her eleventh birthday, demonstrates her literacy and shows her wit and talent for mimicry.

In her early adult years, Lady Caroline wrote prose and poetry, and took to sketching and portraiture. She spoke French and Italian fluently, was skilled at Greek and Latin and enjoyed music and drama.

Marriage and family

thumb|right|Lady Caroline Lamb, née Ponsonby by [[John Hoppner]]

In June 1805, at the age of nineteen, Lady Caroline Ponsonby married William Lamb, a rising politician and heir to the 1st Viscount Melbourne. Although their meeting had been shrewdly orchestrated by William Lamb's mother, theirs was a love match. The couple became "mutually captivated" during a visit to Brocket Hall in 1802 and for many years the pair enjoyed a happy marriage. Lady Caroline suffered long recovery periods after each birth.

Her son was born with severe mental problems. Although most aristocratic families typically sent such relatives to institutions, the Lambs cared for their son at home until his eventual death in 1836, eight years after Lady Caroline's death. The stress of their son's ill health, combined with William Lamb's consuming career ambitions, drove a wedge between the couple.

thumb|[[Portrait of Lord Byron in 1814, by Thomas Phillips]]

Lady Caroline and Lord Byron publicly decried each other as they privately pledged their love over the following months. Byron referred to Lamb as "Caro", which she adopted as her public nickname. After Byron ended the affair, her husband took Lady Caroline to Ireland. The distance did not cool Lady Caroline's interest in the poet, and she and Byron corresponded constantly during her exile. She did not seriously injure herself, and it is most unlikely that she had any suicidal intentions, but her reputation was damaged and her mental stability was questioned. Byron himself referred to it as a theatrical performance: "Lady Caroline performed the dagger scene" (a reference to Macbeth).

Lady Caroline's obsession with Byron would define much of her later life, as well as influencing both her and Byron's works. They would write poems in the style of each other about each other and even embed overt messages to one another in their verse.

Literary career

Lady Caroline Lamb was noted to have been involved in a few different literary circles that met in the Holland House, Lady Charleville's, Lord Ward's, Lord Lansdowne's and others of similar repute.thumb|left|Lady Caroline Lamb by [[Eliza H. Trotter, 1810s]]Lady Caroline's most famous work is Glenarvon, a Gothic novel that was released in 1816 just weeks after Byron's departure from England. Although published anonymously, Lady Caroline's authorship was an open secret. It featured a thinly disguised pen-picture of herself and her former lover, who was painted as a war hero who turns traitor against Irish nationalism. The book was notable for featuring the first version of the Byronic hero outside of Byron's own work as well as a detailed scrutiny of the Romantic period and, more specifically, the Ton. Lady Caroline included scathing caricatures of several of those prominent society members. although her sister-in-law, Emily Lamb, Countess Cowper, got Lady Caroline readmitted to Almack's in 1819, her reputation never fully recovered.

In 1819, Lady Caroline mimicked Byron's style in the narrative poem "A New Canto". Years before, Lady Caroline had impersonated Byron in a letter to his publishers to have them send her a portrait of Byron. It worked, and the tone and substance of her request fooled them into sending the painting.

Lady Caroline published three additional novels during her lifetime: Graham Hamilton (1822), Ada Reis (1823), and Penruddock (1823).

Later life and death

thumb|An illustration of Lady Caroline from In Spite of Epilepsy (1910) by Matthew Woods

Byron's confidante and close friend was his wife's maternal aunt, William Lamb's own mother, the colourful Elizabeth Lamb, Viscountess Melbourne. Lady Melbourne had been instrumental in bringing about the politically advantageous marriage of her son to Lady Caroline, despite disliking both her and her mother.

Once Lady Caroline began her affair with Byron, her mother-in-law began a long and blatant campaign to rid her son of his wife. As Lord David Cecil remarks, she had long since concluded that Caroline deserved all her misfortunes. William Lamb refused to submit and regretted that his mother had conspired against his wife with Byron. Calling Byron treacherous, William Lamb was supportive of his wife to her death.

Ultimately, it was Lady Caroline who prevailed on her husband to agree to a formal separation in 1825. Both parties had had numerous extramarital affairs by then, and Lamb had long been known to eschew duplicity.

References

External links

'CARO: The Lady Caroline Lamb Website: “Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know”?'
Lamb's 'New Canto'