Monday, June 2, 2008

A Tale of a Broken Heart

I'm having the shittiest of days, so what better time than this to bring up Lady Caroline Lamb. You'll have to excuse my Bluestocking approach to this subject tonight but it's hitting a little too close to home.

Lady Caroline Lamb was the daughter of Henrietta Duncannon, Georgiana's sister. Therefore she was destined for fabulosity. Her adult life did begin as such, she married for love, was witty, beautiful, and happy. Everything changed when she met Lord Byron. He pursued her and, at first, and she resisted but was eventually overcome by his charms. She fell head over heels in love with him. When Byron ended the affair suddenly in a cold letter Caroline did not take it well. She became obsessed with him, and stalked him for about four years. It's rumored the affair even landed her in a straitjacket at one point. Byron continued to be cold and uncaring to her and even commented that he was "haunted by a skeleton;" Caroline had lost much weight in her grief.

Her husband eventually divorced her after years of being embarrassed in the press by her affair. Caroline went on to write Glenarvon, a gothic novel meant to hurt her former lover. It is said that Byron's funeral cortège ironically crossed paths with her on its way to his burial and the experience is what finally drove her to a nervous breakdown and insanity. She spent her remaining years in seclusion in Brocket Hall.

7 comments:

  1. Sounds like something I would do, not you!
    No breakdowns, you gotta snap outta this before YOU end up in a straight jacket!

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  2. Haha don't worry I'm not about to pull a "Lady Caroline Lamb"

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  3. OMG just like in Valmont! hhehehehehe

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  4. oh wow I didn't even make that association! Yeah that chick's hubby took her back

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  5. Oh, poor Caro was always a favorite when I used to lecture about Byron. Of course, I think my students just liked the part about how she used to put hair from her...um... nether regions in letters she sent to Byron. Spicy stuff!

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  6. Yeah I neglected to put in that part, as deliciously scandeloous is it is! Wouldn't she sign the hair delivers as "your antelope" or something of the like?

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  7. The English Woman's revenge quote is Caro's, not her mother.(who Byron referred as Lady Blarney)

    Caro also threw herself at Byron's head, he did not make the first move, she wrote him fan mail first, unsigned, but when it's deliverd by a pageboy in livery you get the hint. Later, of course she showed up as the page. The affair lasted three months and had enough drama for three years. Such is Caro...I thought Sheridan? tried to claim her as his daughter before her wedding and came unenvited to the christing of Caro's son. It would explain a lot!

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