Talks on Daniel Gardner's The Three Witches from Macbeth

In a bit of shameless self-promoting news I will be giving papers in both the US and UK on Daniel Gardner's amazing portrait of Georgiana, Lady Melbourne, and Anne Damer; The Three Witches from Macbeth. 

I'll be in Middleton, CT, USA on October 13 at the NEASECS conference chatting away and then on December 3-4 I will be at Cambridge University for the very exciting conference, Charming Intentions: Occultism, Magic and the History of Art.  If anyone is in the neighborhood I would love to see you there!

The Sylph, Letters 15-23

Summary
We are finally introduced to the character in which the book is named after, the Sylph. He enters Julia’s life in the form of a mysterious letter offering advice and comfort in the environment that Julia is still so very uncomfortable in. He also warns her to be wary of the men she is frequently in the presence of, particularly Lord Biddluph. Both Julia and her sister welcome the guardian angel’s presence.

Julia writes again in a state of distress after finding a letter to Lord Stanley from Lucy Gardiner. Lucy’s letter reveals that Lord Stanley is also having an affair with the very woman he put Julia in the protection of, Lady Anne. The letter goes on to reveal that Lucy left Lord Biddluph to be with Sir William and Julia keenly notes that this makes Lord Biddluph eager for revenge.

To ease her stress, Julia begins a fondness for gambling and writes to her sister to tell her of a victorious comeback in a card game. She receives another letter from the Sylph warning her of the dangers of gambling and as a further example tells the story of a Lady D- who was blackmailed into sleeping with Lord L- to repay her gambling losses.

In the meantime Sir William admits his debts to Julia and she signs over marital assets to him. Lord Biddluph writes to Colonel Montague to complain that Julia suddenly had no interest in playing cards.

Discuss
Susan R. was correct! Sir William cannot handle a woman in his own set. Although Lucy is not a member of the ton per se, she obviously has a lot of experience with spending time with them and ahem knowing their ways.
The Georgiana Connection
One of the means that The Sylph could be identified to be Georgiana’s work was also one of the reasons for its popularity. Just like Richard Sheridan’s play, The School for Scandal, fans amused themselves by trying to pick out which notorious celebrity was represented in each character. Lady Besford may not have a large role in The Sylph but it is likely that she take upon the characteristics of Georgiana’s close friend and mentor, Lady Melbourne. Lady Melbourne was also known to be frank yet graceful, and carried on many affairs, but wasn’t as sloppy in them as other young aristocrats. In fact she remained on amiable terms with many of her old lovers.

Lady Anne Parker, the real jerk of the two companions, without a doubt in my mind is the insufferable Lady Jersey. This vindictive lass was known to be cruel to her friends for the fun of it, which is what Lady Anne did to Julia by purposely inviting her to an opera, knowing Lord Stanley would be there with his mistress. Lady Jersey had an affair with the Duke of Devonshire and made no secret of it to Georgiana and this was also incorporated into the novel with Lady Anne’s affair with Lord Stanley.

Georgiana was always searching for helpful advice to guide her into making the correct decisions. Her mother was her chief adviser although Georgiana would have probably liked to have a more neutral adviser such as the Sylph. In her letters to her mother there is always a tone of insecurity and apprehension in her actions.

How do you feel about Julia’s latest decisions? There were many in these letters which she faced. Should she have confronted her husband about the letter, perhaps tried gambling a little more, or even refused to sign over what little assets she had?

Country Homes: Melbourne Hall

Location: Derbyshire (neighbours to Chatsworth)
Famous Inhabitants: Lady Melbourne, William Lamb, Caroline Lamb
Website: http://www.melbournehall.com/

The Curious Case of Caroline Ponsonby

Lady Harriet Duncannon had already produced a heir and a spare by the time she found comfort in the rake, Charles Wyndham's arms. Her next child, born in 1785 proved different from the others right away. She was a frail and sickly infant; the complete opposite of her brothers when they were born. She also looked slightly different too...a little impish, in fact. Truth be told, Harriet was sleeping with both her husband and Charles Wyndham around the time of her daughter, Caroline's, conception.

A few years earlier Lady Melbourne was conducting one of her own affairs; one of many. This one was with the Earl of Egremont, George Wyndham. Lord Egremont just happened to be the father of Charles Wyndham-the possible father of Caroline. Lord Egremont was also probably the father of Lady Melbourne's son whom she had at the time of the affair, William Lamb.

How ironic, then, that these two probable results of affairs, Caro and William Lamb, would fall in love and get married. As Harriet's biographer, Janet Gleeson points out, if these two were, in fact, not fathered by their mother's husbands, then Caro was actually marrying her uncle. Oh dear.

While there is no direct proof of the parentage, Caro's difficulty in pregnancies offer strong evidence for inbreeding. Caro suffered many pregnancies before finally delivering a sickly child, who would die prematurely.

Tart of the Week: Elizabeth Lady Melbourne

Before Georgiana ruled London society as leading hostess and leader of the ton there was Lady Melbourne. Only five years older than Georgiana, she gracefully stepped down from the post and became good friends with the new duchess. Less social obligations meant more time to play!

Elizabeth Milbank was the daughter of a baronet and grew into a beautiful, intelligent, clever girl. At 18 she was married to Peniston Lamb (does that name sound familiar?) and immediately set herself in organizing his rather disorganized affairs. That included overseeing the building of Melbourne House. After she had successfully fulfilled her duties of getting her husband's affairs in order and giving him an heir Elizabeth retired, if you will, to a hedonistic lifestyle of debauchery and scandal.

Because of her assertive and intelligent personality she accomplished her sinful lifestyle very well. It was rumored that Lord Coleraine sold Elizabeth to Lord Egremont for £13,000 and that both Elizabeth and her husband were parties of this contract and got shares of the money. She not only got money from this contract, but two children as well. She had a notorious temper and was a natural leader so even when she resigned from her post as leading hostess she was likely holding a puppet string or two of Georgiana's. In Sheridan's play, The School for Scandal, the character of the evil Lady Sneerwell was likely modeled after Elizabeth.

Unlike her character, Lady Sneerwell, Elizabeth did seem to be a decent friend of Georgiana's,

"The Duke of Richmond has been here, and told me you and I were two rival queens, and I believe, if there had not been some people in the room, who might have thought it odd, that I should have slapped his face for having such an idea; and he wished me joy of having the Prince to myself. How odious people are, upon my life, I have no patience with them."

Oh yeah, she also slept with Prince of Wales and bore one of his many bastards.

In fact, Lady Melbourne could be as loyal a friend as she was a disloyal wife. When rumors surfaced about an elopement involving Georgiana's sister Harriet, she venomously denied it all while writing Georgiana to find if it was in fact true. As for her disloyalty to her husband, the Viscount seemed not to mind it too much, especially since he received the title of Viscount in 1781 due to her infidelities and manipulations.

Lady Melbourne's affairs lasted past her youth and beauty and too numerous to count. One of her younger men conquests was Lord Bedford, who was courting Georgiana's daughter at the time I believe. Some of the infamous lover and poet, Lord Byron's most scandalous letters were addressed to Elizabeth despite the massive age gap. In fact, Byron's other conquest, Lady Caroline Lamb was Elizabeth's daughter in law. How incestuous! Unlike Caroline, the affair did not end disastrously and Byron has been quoted as saying Elizabeth was "the best friend I ever had in my life and the cleverest woman." Clever indeed, it seems that no ill-will was ever wished on Elizabeth by the many men she toyed with. The same probably can't be said about the wives of those men.


In this painting by Daniel Gardner Lady Melbourne (left) and Georgiana (right) are depicted as witches.















[The Milbanks and Melbourne Families by George Stubbs is property of The National Gallery of London]

Quotables

"Never trust a man with another's secret, never trust a woman with her own."

-Lady Melbourne