In Byron's Wake by Miranda Seymour

Author:Miranda Seymour
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Published: 2018-04-07T04:00:00+00:00

William Carpenter’s appointment as the Lovelace children’s tutor – a role in which he would in fact acquit himself quite well during his trial year – proved timely. His employment coincided with the time at which Ada’s brave words about her readiness to endure – and even to make a research subject of her physical suffering – were put to the test.

Ada’s health suddenly deteriorated during the midwinter of 1843–4. Dr Locock was shaken when he saw for the first time what he described as a ‘mad’ look in his patient’s eyes. ‘He told me that it was really peculiar, & horrible to a spectator,’ Ada confessed to her mother in an undated note. Put on a light diet and in a state of strict isolation, Ada acknowledged the need for such prudent measures when she found that she could not even cope with the stress of a short visit from a cherished family friend, the Yorkshire vicar Samuel Gamlen. ‘I could not bear it for more than 10 minutes,’ a wistful Ada admitted to her mother in a second undated note.

My brain then began to turn & twist, & my eyes to burn. I referred him [Gamlen] to you for everything about me . . . & merely said a few little facts as to the present . . . I cannot but weep over my inability to see so many who I would wish to see. It is sad, sad, sad to me.

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