Lady Caroline Lamb by Antonia Fraser

Author:Antonia Fraser
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 2023-06-06T00:00:00+00:00

Her last letter before the Melbourne party left Paris strikes an affectionate, regretful note rather than thwarted passion, as does the suggestion that he should bring others to his farewell visit: ‘Star of the East I go tomorrow & must entreat you to call on me tonight till one. You will find me at Home. Pray bring the inconstant [Benjamin Constant, the political philosopher, once the lover of Madame de Staël] and any other you may find – how I regret the Bruce on quitting Paris – aye and all else in this delightful capital. Yours with respect & truth Caroline.’25

It seems most likely then that Michael Bruce was the first of Caroline’s clever, amusing, intelligent admirers, enriching her life with their professed devotion (while not risking very much by that profession). This might be the way she would go in the future, as being finally more satisfactory than the consequences of real-life ‘Remorse, despair and agony/Mingled with every extasy’ experienced with Byron.

There is another aspect to Caroline’s ‘affair’ with Michael Bruce which is also an augury for the future. William Lamb evidently continued to have excellent polite social relations with him. One letter from Caroline to Bruce while still in Paris is focused on William’s desire ‘to join your party’, despite Caroline having ‘a small attack of fever’.26 As a result of the visit to fashionable post-war Paris, a new detachment in William’s attitude to Caroline was emerging. It was the beginning of an indifference to Caroline agissant, which might or might not result in true alienation. Whatever he had suffered in the past, it is clear that William did not really suffer now – not however for lack of tenderness: his protective kindness remained.

The Lambs returned to England from Paris in October. Caroline’s mind was now focused on something rapidly becoming of prime importance to her: creativity in place of sexuality. She returned not only to England, but to that piece of writing with which she had been half toying, half pursuing, for several years. Caroline agissant was looking to find a more serious occupation to replace that passion in all its ecstatic and grim aspects, the thrilling lyre to whose music she had responded. There were many other kinds of passion that she, Caroline Lamb, might evoke, as she was about to discover.

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