Lamb, Caroline (1785–1828)

English writer. Her gothic novel Glenarvon, published anonymously in 1816, reflects her passionate affair with Lord Byron during 1812–13, and contains a caricature portrait of the poet. On their meeting in 1812, she wrote famously in her journal that he was ‘mad, bad, and dangerous to know.’

Lamb was the daughter of Frederick Ponsonby, 3rd Earl of Bessborough, and spent her early childhood in Italy. She married William Lamb (later Viscount Melbourne) in 1805. Her mental instability, noted by her father when she was a child, intensified after her affair with Byron, and her condition deteriorated following a chance encounter with his funeral procession on its way to Newstead in 1824. She separated from her husband in 1925.

Following their affair, Byron wrote of her in a letter of 1815: ‘A word to you of Lady Caroline Lamb – I speak from experience – keep clear of her –... she is a villainous intriguante ... mad & malignant – capable of all & every mischief ...’