Lady Caroline Lamb A Biography By Paul Douglass Broken lines indicate extramarital affairs. For Charlene LADY CAROLINE LAMB: A BIOGRAPHY Copyright © Paul Douglass, 2004. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2004 978-1-4039-6605-6 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. First published 2004 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN™ 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS. Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN IS THE GLOBAL ACADEMIC IMPRINT OF THE PALGRAVE MACMILLAN division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Mac- millan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-52931-5 ISBN 978-1-4039-7334-4 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781403973344 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Douglass, Paul, 1951- Lady Caroline Lamb / Paul Douglass. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Lamb, Caroline, Lady, 1785-1828. 2. Novelists, English--19th century- -Biography. 3. Politicians’ spouses--Great Britain--Biography. 4. Women and literature--England--History--19th century. 5. Byron, George Gordon Byron, baron, 1788-1824--Relations with women. 6. Melbourne, William Lamb, Viscount, 1779-1848--Marriage. I. Title. PR4859.L9D68 2004 823’.7--dc22 [B] 2004045620 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Design by planettheo.com First edition: October 2004 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents List of Illustrations . vii Acknowledgements . ix Preface . xi One A Child of the Mist . 1 Two Growing Pains. 13 Three Coming Out . 31 Four Marriage . 49 Five Parenthood . 67 Six Indiscretions . 79 Seven Byron . 101 Eight Ireland . 119 Nine Medea and her Dragons . 143 Ten Playing Byron . 169 Eleven The Music of Glenarvon . 197 Twleve Politics and Satire . 209 Thirteen A Book to Offend No One: Graham Hamilton . 227 Fourteen Another Farrago: Ada Reis . 241 Fifteen Byron’s Death . 255 Sixteen Exile . 263 Seventeen Rational and Quiet. 281 Epilogue . 289 Appendix Lady Caroline Lamb and Her Circle Who’s Who . 293 Chronology . 297 Abbreviations . 302 Notes . 303 References. 341 Index . 347 List of Illustrations 1. Vignette of Childe Harold at sea, a scene from Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, by Lady Caroline Lamb (1812). By kind permission of Mr. Gerald Burdon. 2. Vignette of funeral scene from Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, by Lady Caroline Lamb (1812). By kind permission of Mr. Gerald Burdon. 3. Lady Caroline Lamb, dressed in page costume holding fruit tray and with spaniel, painted in 1813 by Thomas Phillips. Courtesy of The Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth. Reproduced by permission of the Chatsworth Settle- ment Trustees. 4. Brocket Hall. Contemporary photograph. By kind permission of Brocket Hall International. 5. Lord Byron in Albanian Dress, painted by Thomas Phillips. National Portrait Gallery, London. 6. William Spencer Cavendish, Marquis of Hartington, later 6th Duke of Devonshire, painted in 1811 (the year he inherited the Devonshire title) by Sir Thomas Lawrence. Courtesy of The Devonshire House Collection, Chat- sworth. Reproduced by permission of the Chatsworth Settlement Trustees. 7. Georgiana Poyntz, Countess Spencer, Lady Caroline Lamb’s Grandmother, painted most probably in the period 1798-1810 by Henry Howard. Courtesy of The Devonshire House Collection, Chatsworth. Reproduced by permission of the Chatsworth Settlement Trustees. 8. Isaac Nathan. Artist unknown. Portrait circa 1810-1820. Courtesy of Charles Venour Nathan. 9. William Lamb, by Sir Thomas Lawrence. 1805. National Portrait Gallery, London. 10. Lady Caroline Tired and Dispirited. From a painting by Eliza H. Trotter. Exhibited 1811. National Portrait Gallery, London. 11. Sketch by Lady Caroline in the Hertfordshire Archives showing her dog Rover with a fairy on his back, and with the caption “To a lanky Cur I lov’d at that time-.” By permission of Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies. 12. Lady Caroline Lamb on horseback. E. Parocell (?). Private Collection. Photograph: Photographic Survey, Courtauld Institute of Art. 13. Lady Melbourne by John Hoppner. National Portrait Gallery, London. 14. Sketch by Lady Caroline showing winged cherub attacked by snakes and demons, with the caption “un soupçon cruel le dechire.” By permission of Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies. 15. Lord Granville Leveson Gower after Sir Thomas Lawrence. By kind permis- sion of the Courtauld Institute of Art. 16. Sketch by Lady Caroline in her Commonplace book at John Murray Archive showing her husband William, herself, and their son Augustus. Much madness is divinest sense To a discerning eye; Much sense the starkest madness. ’Tis the majority In this, as all, prevails. Assent, and you are sane; Demur,—you’re straightway dangerous And handled with a chain. —Emily Dickinson Acknowledgements T he life of Lady Caroline Lamb has been documented by so many biographers, memoirists, and critics that simply reading and evaluating partial accounts and sifting through letters and documents relating to her marriage and extended family has been an immense task. I could never have done it alone. Margot Strickland generously gave me access to her research, including microfilms she had gathered; she corresponded with me over a period of several years, and I am deeply grateful. John Clubbe also encouraged me and shared his research. Frederick Burwick’s Poetic Madness and the Romantic Imagination influenced my approach to my subject, and more important, his brilliant mind and generous heart have challenged and sustained me throughout our long friendship. Peter Cochran corresponded with me and corrected errors in the manuscript with a wit that rivals those of Lady Caroline’s extremely witty contemporaries. Eve Culver, a graduate assistant at San Jose State University, spent many hours combing libraries and transcribing letters for me. Her sharp eye and quick understanding were invaluable. Those who have read Peter Graham’s Don Juan and Regency England will recognize that the fourth chapter of that book eloquently states main themes of my own work. I am indebted to him and to Graham Pont, who pointed out to me that Isaac Nathan was a major character in the drama of Lady Caroline’s life. Similarly, I am grateful to Frances Wilson, who edited the Everyman reissue of Lady Caroline’s Glenarvon and defended Lady Caroline against moralizers and melodramatists in her Byromania, and to Jonathan Gross for his fine edition of Lady Melbourne’s letters. Without doubt the turning point in this project came on a hot August night in 2001 in Battery Park when Marilyn Gaull of NYU told me she believed in my book and would bring it to Palgrave and see it through the press. Thank you Marilyn, for all your advice and hard work to make this book as good as it could be. My colleagues at San Jose State University, Marianina Olcott and Dominique Van Hoof, read Greek and French for me and saved me from many mistakes. As I struggled to finish this book while chairing the English Department of a large state university, my friend, coworker, and fellow writer Mark Bussmann, helped me find time to write and gave me invaluable feedback. x Lady Caroline Lamb I must here gratefully acknowledge the generosity of Gerald Burdon in permitting me to reproduce the two remarkable watercolors that Lady Caroline did in 1812 for Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. Acknowledgements for permissions to reprint other pictures may be found in the List of Illustrations. The staffs of the Hertfordshire Records Office, the British Library, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford were extremely helpful. Diane Naylor, of the Devonshire Manuscripts in the Chatsworth Archive, was marvelously kind and efficient. How sweet were the hours spent working in these facilities! Sweetest of all, though, was time spent in the John Murray Archive receiving Virginia Murray’s indispensible help. Quotations from manuscript sources are by permission of Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies; the Bodleian Library; the Devonshire Manuscripts Archive in Chatsworth (United Kingdom); the Trustees of the Victoria & Albert Museum; the John Murray Archive; the Carl Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle of the New York Public Library (Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations); the James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; and the Clifton Waller Barrett Library, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library. Extracts from the Lovelace/Byron Papers are reproduced by permission of Pollinger Limited and the Lovelace Papers on deposit in the Bodleian Library. My partner in marriage, Charlene Keller Douglass, spent many hours finding materials that enriched my work. When the chance came for us to go to England together, she accompanied me and did much research. She helped me to edit the final manuscript’s footnotes. I cannot thank her enough. Our children, Jeremy and Regan, were not yet in college when I started writing. Now, they have both graduated. I am thankful that my family understood my need to finish this task, which so long preoccupied me. I am further blessed in that they seem to appreciate my work, just as I love and appreciate them without end. Preface I n 1785, Caroline Ponsonby—the future Lady Caroline Lamb—was born into a distinguished family. Her mother, Lady Bessborough, was one of the two or three most politically influential women of the era. Caroline’s Aunt Georgiana was the accomplished Duchess of Devonshire. Marie Antoinette was a family friend. Edward Gibbon, author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, once bounced six-year-old Caroline on his knee in Lausanne.