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.
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, 1908–2024, 22 vols. plus supplements.
Betham-Edwards, Matilda. Reminiscences. G. Redway, 1898, p. vi, 354 pp.
111
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...
Friends, Associates
Dorothy Wordsworth
DW
's correspondents included Maria Jane Jewsbury
and Mary Ann Lamb
. She was very close to Coleridge
, who settled at Greta Hall near Keswick to be near the Wordsworths at Grasmere in June...
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, 1986.
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
Friends, Associates
Mary Hays
After Wollstonecraft's death, and Fenwick's departure from England, it seems unlikely that MH
found female friends to replace them, though she knew well such people as Elizabeth Inchbald
, Anna Letitia Barbauld
, and Charles
Friends, Associates
William Hazlitt
Sarah was a close friend of Mary Lamb
(who tried without success to get her to see her divorce as a serious matter: Sarah was focussed, at least publicly, on the adventure of travelling to...
Friends, Associates
Lucy Aikin
Henry Crabb Robinson
, visiting LA
with Charles
and Mary Lamb
, reported Aikin as admiring both the wit and the fine face of Lamb.
Lamb, Charles, 1775 - 1834, and Mary, 1764 - 1847 Lamb. The Letters of Charles and Mary Anne Lamb. Editor Marrs, Edwin J., Jr, Cornell University Press, 1975, 3 vols.
3:3, 116-18 and n4, 166-7, 207
Friends, Associates
Leigh Hunt
While serving his sentence in the Surrey Gaol in Horsemonger Lane (missing his family and ill with lung disease caused by confinement), LH
received as visitors Maria Edgeworth
, William Hazlitt
, Jeremy Bentham
,...
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,
qtd. in
McCarthy, William. Anna Letitia Barbauld, Voice of the Enlightenment. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.
446
Science...
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 verse tragedy Antonio was performed for the first and last time at Drury Lane
. It was rejected by the audience, not with hissing but with coughing.
Burton, Sarah. A Double Life: A Biography of Charles and Mary Lamb. Viking, 2003.
184
10 December 1806: Charles Lamb's farce Mr H— opened at Drury...
Writing climate item
10 December 1806
Charles Lamb
's farce Mr 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.
Burton, Sarah. A Double Life: A Biography of Charles and Mary Lamb. Viking, 2003.
237-9
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.
Woodbery, Bonnie. “The Silence of the Lambs: Anti-Maniacal Regimes in the Writings of Mary Lamb”. Women’s Writing, Vol.
5
, No. 3, 1998, pp. 289-04.
291
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,
Saturday Review. Chawton.
28.739 (25 December 1869): 832-3
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.
“The Times Digital Archive 1785-2007”. Thompson Gale: The Times Digital Archive.
(26 October 1972): 11
Texts
Lamb, Mary, 1764 - 1847. “A Lady’s Sapphic”. The Champion.
Lamb, Mary, 1764 - 1847, and Charles, 1775 - 1834 Lamb. Mrs Leicester’s School. M. J. Godwin, 1808.
Lamb, Mary, 1764 - 1847. “On Needle-Work”. British Lady’s Magazine.
Lamb, Mary, 1764 - 1847, and Charles, 1775 - 1834 Lamb. Poetry for Children. M. J. Godwin, 1809, 2 vols.
Lamb, Mary, 1764 - 1847, and Charles, 1775 - 1834 Lamb. Tales from Shakespear. M. J. Godwin, 1807, 2 vols.
Lamb, Charles, 1775 - 1834, and Mary, 1764 - 1847 Lamb. The Letters of Charles and Mary Anne Lamb. Editor Marrs, Edwin J., Jr, Cornell University Press, 1975, 3 vols.
Lamb, Charles, 1775 - 1834, and Mary, 1764 - 1847 Lamb. The Letters of Charles Lamb. Editor Lucas, Edward Verrall, J. M. Dent, 1935, 3 vols.
Lamb, Charles, 1775 - 1834, and Mary, 1764 - 1847 Lamb. The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb. Editor Lucas, Edward Verrall, Methuen, 1905, 7 vols.