Record Number: 10073
Reading Experience:
Evidence:
[Transcribed in Lady Caroline's hand]: ?From Nature & Art There is a word in the vocabulary more bitter, more direful in its import than all the rest?if poverty if bodily pain if disgrace even if flighted love be your unhappy fate kneel & bless heaven for its beneficent influence [...] William was gone ? her lover her Friend was gone & with him gone all that excels of happiness which is presence had bestow?d [?] She wished it had been kinder even for his sake who wrote it yes said she after a pause ? he has only the fault of inconstancy and that has been caused by my change of conduct ? had I been virtuous still he had still been affectionate?Bitter thought & true! ??
Century:1800-1849
Date:Between 1 Aug 1812 and 31 Dec 1812
Country:England or possibly Ireland
Timen/a
Place:n/a
Type of Experience(Reader):
silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
(Listener):
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
Reader / Listener / Reading Group:
Reader: Age:Adult (18-100+)
Gender:Female
Date of Birth:13 Nov 1785
Socio-Economic Group:Royalty / aristocracy
Occupation:socialite, novelist, influential member of the Whig political elite
Religion:Christian
Country of Origin:England
Country of Experience:England or possibly Ireland
Listeners present if any:e.g family, servants, friends
n/a
Additional Comments:
(n?e Ponsonby)
Text Being Read:
Author: Title:Nature and Art
Genre:Fiction
Form of Text:Unknown
Publication Detailsn/a
Provenanceunknown
Source Information:
Record ID:10073
Source:Manuscript
Author:Lady Caroline Lamb (n?e Ponsonby)
Title:[commonplace book 1]
Location:John Murray Archive
Call No:Acc. 12604/4107
Page/Folio:23r-24r
Citation:Lady Caroline Lamb (n?e Ponsonby), [commonplace book 1] John Murray Archive, p. Acc. 12604/4107, p. 23r-24r, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/RED/record_details.php?id=10073, accessed: 25 April 2024
Additional Comments:
Lady Caroline's quotation contains errors, which are more prominent in the second half transcribed here. She combines sentences from different paragraphs. Inchbald's text actually reads: 'She wished it had been kinder, even for his sake who wrote it---because she thought so well of him, and desired still to think so well, that she was sorry at any faults that rendered him less worthy of her good opinion. The cold civility of his letter had this effect---her clear, her acute judgment felt it a kind of prevarication to promise to write---and then write nothing that was hoped for. But enthralled by the magic of her passion, she shortly found excuses for the man she loved, at the expence of her own condemnation: "He has only the fault of inconstancy," she cried, "and that has been caused by my change of conduct---had I been virtuous still, he had still been affectionate." Bitter thought!' Transcribed by Lindsey Eckert.
