Mary Lamb

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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.
Image of the head of Mary Lamb, 1764 - 1847, from a portrait of her with her brother Charles, by Francis Stephen Cary, 1834. She looks straight at the viewer; her face and some visible black hair are encircled by a white ruffled cap tied with a broad, dark ribbon, and she wears a black cloak.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
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.
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...
Friends, Associates Mary Matilda Betham
As well as meeting at Llangollen with Lady Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby (who later talked with high praise of her),
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.
61-2
In 1810 Southey
Family and Intimate relationships Matilda Betham-Edwards
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.
100-1
While in London she...
Friends, Associates Thomas Carlyle
While in London, TC socialized with John Stuart Mill , Mary and Charles Lamb , Henry Taylor , Sarah Austin and Leigh Hunt .
Textual Features Marianne Chambers
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...
Travel Mary Cowden Clarke
During her engagement the future MCC travelled to Somerset and other western counties to meet her fiancé's relations.
Clarke, Mary Cowden. My Long Life. Dodd, Mead.
49
The couple spent their honeymoon at Enfield, Charles Cowden Clarke's birthplace and the scene of...
Friends, Associates Mary Cowden Clarke
In addition to meeting Dickens as a result of her theatrical activities, MCC and her husband met William Hazlitt through a shared duty of theatre reviewing, and she became friends with Mary Howitt , and...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Mary Cowden Clarke
MCC wrote a preface for this book, which includes accounts of Keats , Charles and Mary Lamb , Douglas Jerrold , and Dickens .

Timeline

By June 1796: Samuel Taylor Coleridge compiled a booklet...

Writing climate item

By June 1796

Samuel Taylor Coleridge compiled a booklet titled Sonnets from Various Authors: four each by himself, Southey , Charles Lamb , and Charles Lloyd , two by Charlotte Smith , and one each by seven more writers including Anna Seward .

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.