Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Mary Lamb
-
Standard Name: Lamb, Mary,, 1764 - 1847
Birth Name: Mary Anne Lamb
Nickname: Polly
Pseudonym: Sempronia
Used Form: Mary Anne Lamb
ML
is still known primarily as the sister of the essayist Charles Lamb
, and as the central character in a painful and sensational story. She was, however, the lead author in her three collaborations with Charles (Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare, 1807, Mrs Leicester's School, 1808, and a book of verses for children) and sole author of a strongly feminist essay.
Henry Crabb Robinson
, visiting LA
with Charles
and Mary Lamb
, reported Aikin as admiring both the wit and the fine face of Lamb.
Robinson, Henry Crabb. Diary.
34
Friends, Associates
Anna Letitia Barbauld
ALB
met Charles Lamb
and his sister Mary
. Charles had already, in the privacy of a letter, railed at the cursed Barbauld Crew whose didactic tales had driven out old, wild tales,
McCarthy, William. Anna Letitia Barbauld, Voice of the Enlightenment. The Johns Hopkins University Press.
446
Science...
Friends, Associates
Elizabeth Ogilvy Benger
Having already praised many contemporary women writers in print, EOB
was now able to meet them. The move to London was accomplished principally through the zealous friendship of Miss Sarah Wesley
, who had already...
Family and Intimate relationships
Elizabeth Ogilvy Benger
Around 1801-2, Charles
and Mary Lamb
were said to have succeeded in talking [George Dyer
] into love with EOB
, but to have been unsuccessful in talking her into love with him. This...
Occupation
Mary Matilda Betham
MMB
wrote later that many people thought her a singular, and perhaps imprudent person, because I rhymed, and ventured into the world as an artist; but I belonged to a large family, and dreaded dependence...
Betham, Ernest, editor. A House of Letters. Jarrold and Sons.
69, 70
MMB
acquired a wide acquaintance in London. She became a close friend...
Health
Mary Matilda Betham
MMB
had some kind of general breakdown of health whose beginning Ernest Betham dates to about 1818 (though she seems to have been well when her Vignettes: in Verse appeared this year). Robert Southey
reported...
Textual Production
Mary Matilda Betham
In March 1799 MMB
was apparently working both at some translation (which she suspected would not sell) and a novel. Neither has been identified or is known to have been printed.
Betham, Ernest, editor. A House of Letters. Jarrold and Sons.
MBE
's mother was born Barbara Betham, a clergyman's daughter. Her father and one of her brothers had been scholarly authors, and she was, in her daughter Matilda's words, for her day, highly educated.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder.
Betham-Edwards, Matilda. Reminiscences. G. Redway, p. vi, 354 pp.
111
Friends, Associates
Jane Welsh Carlyle
Despite her ill health, the couple entertained regularly. Their guests included John Stuart Mill
, Henry Taylor
, and Leigh Hunt
. JWC
became especially fond of Hunt and Mill.
Surtees, Virginia. Jane Welsh Carlyle. Michael Russell.
Early in the play the heroine, Miss Beaufort, makes a splendidly flowing and imaginative speech about the endurance necessary to wives; nevertheless she achieves marriage to Fitzaubin, the sceptical and philosophic hero. She also mentions...
MCC
's parents frequently entertained eminent literary figures in a drawing-room where the paintings were all executed by distinguished friends. At an early age she became acquainted with Charles
and Mary Lamb
, Leigh Hunt
Education
Mary Cowden Clarke
MCC
later remembered her responsibility, when very young, of escorting her two next younger brothers to their school.
Clarke, Mary Cowden. My Long Life. Dodd, Mead.
10
Unlike them, she began her education at home. She writes fondly about the rich array of...
Timeline
By June 1796: Samuel Taylor Coleridge compiled a booklet...
13 December 1800: William Godwin's five-act verse tragedy Antonio...
Writing climate item
13 December 1800
William Godwin
's five-act versetragedyAntonio was performed for the first and last time at Drury Lane
. It was rejected by the audience, not with hissing but with coughing.
10 December 1806: Charles Lamb's farce Mr H— opened at Drury...
Writing climate item
10 December 1806
Charles Lamb
's farceMr H— opened at Drury Lane
. Its dashing coxcomb protagonist cuts a swathe through the ladies at Bath until it comes out that his name is Hogsflesh, when they drop him hurriedly.
1823: John Mitford published A Description of the...
Building item
1823
John Mitford
published A Description of the Crimes and Horrors in the Interior of Warburton
's Private Mad-House at Hoxton, Commonly Called Whitmore House: in one of these the writer Mary Lamb
had been confined.
By Christmas 1869: Francis Galton, mathematician, scientist,...
Writing climate item
By Christmas 1869
Francis Galton
, mathematician, scientist, and eugenicist, published Hereditary Genius: An Enquiry into its Laws and Consequences,
By 26 October 1972: Helen Gardner edited The New Oxford Book...
Writing climate item
By 26 October 1972
Helen Gardner
edited The New Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1950, designed to update and replace Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch
's Oxford Book of English Verse, 1900.
Texts
Lamb, Mary, and Charles Lamb. Mrs Leicester’s School. M. J. Godwin, 1808.
Lamb, Mary. “On Needle-Work”. British Lady’s Magazine.
Lamb, Mary, and Charles Lamb. Poetry for Children. M. J. Godwin, 1809.
Lamb, Mary, and Charles Lamb. Tales from Shakespear. M. J. Godwin, 1807.
Lamb, Charles, and Mary Lamb. The Letters of Charles and Mary Anne Lamb. Editor Marrs, Edwin J., Cornell University Press, 1975.
Lamb, Charles, and Mary Lamb. The Letters of Charles Lamb. Editor Lucas, Edward Verrall, J. M. Dent, 1935.
Lamb, Charles, and Mary Lamb. The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb. Editor Lucas, Edward Verrall, Methuen, 1905.