Byron's "Corbeau Blanc": The Life and Letters of Lady Melbourne

Front Cover
Texas A&M University Press, 1998 - Biography & Autobiography - 488 pages
"What famous letters your own are . . . I never saw such traits of discernment, observation of character, knowledge of your own sex, and sly concealment of your knowledge of the foibles of ours," wrote the twenty-four-year-old Lord Byron to Lady Melbourne. More than one hundred previously unpublished letters of Lady Melbourne are included in this scholarly edition which vividly re-creates the late Georgian age. Lady Melbourne's controversial letters to Lord Byron are published in their entirety for the first time, revealing her significant influence on his masterpiece, Don Juan.

Long before the famous correspondence between Byron and Lady Melbourne began, she had impressed her own contemporaries as a woman of no small signficance. Married off to the son of a wealthy lawyer, she used her superior education, attention to detail, and business acumen to manage her amiable but dissolute husband's affairs.

A leading female agriculturist, she was the Duchess of Devonshire's closest confidante, as well as the mistress of the Prince of Wales (1780–84). At her residence in Piccadilly, she entertained a brilliant company that included Charles James Fox, George Canning, and Charles Grey. A half dozen of the nation's most famous painters executed her portrait in oil, while Sheridan recorded her witty repartee in The School for Scandal. Scholars of the Romantic period will welcome reading these carefully annotated letters written by one of the age's most ambitious and captivating personalities.

From inside the book

Contents

Georgianas Rival 17701804
69
A Keen Politician 18051811
95
A Dangerous Acquaintance 18121815
115
Byrons Zia 1814
157
Illustrations
205
Lady Melbournes Letters to Henry Fox and Transcriptions of Political Events
372
Letter of Lord Melbourne to Sophia Baddeley
381
Unpublished Letter of the Prince Regent to Lady Melbourne
383
Three Letters of Lord Grey to Lady Melbourne Regarding the Appointment of Frederick Land to a Diplomatic Position in the Two Sicilies
385
Genealogical Tables The Milbanks and Melbourne Families
389
Index
468
Copyright

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Page 195 - They say, best men are moulded out of faults; And, for the most, become much more the better For being a little bad: so may my husband.
Page 199 - I'll have her, but I will not keep her long. What ! I, that kill'd her husband and his father, To take her in her heart's...
Page 263 - Jose and the Donna Inez led For some time an unhappy sort of life, Wishing each other not divorced but dead; They lived respectably as man and wife, Their conduct was exceedingly well-bred, And gave no outward signs of inward strife, Until at length the smother'd fire broke out, And put the business past all kind of doubt.
Page 368 - In fact, he was convinced by experience, that the Cabinet neither possessed ability, nor knowledge to devise a good plan; nor temper and discernment to adopt what he now thought necessary unless Mr.
Page 368 - Wellesley thought that it was perfectly practicable to extend the plan in the peninsula ; . and that it was neither safe nor honest towards this country or the allies, to continue the present contracted scheme.
Page 326 - Just returned from seeing Kean in Richard. By Jove, he is a soul ! Life — nature — truth — without exaggeration or diminution.
Page 19 - Wraxall, the diplomat, paid tribute to her "commanding figure, exceeding the middle height, full of grace and dignity, an animated countenance, intelligent features, captivating manners, and conversation; all these and many other attractions, enhanced by coquetry, met in Lady Melbourne
Page 46 - Westmorland, she turned on her heel and wrote in her diary that he was 'mad, bad, and dangerous to know.' The acquaintance was renewed at Lady Holland's, and for nine months he almost lived at Melbourne House, where he contrived to 'sweep away' the dancing, in which he could take no part.
Page 21 - Mr. Damer supped at the Bedford Arms in Covent Garden, with four common women, a blind fiddler, and no other man. At three in the morning he dismissed his seraglio, bidding each receive her guinea at the bar, and ordering Orpheus to come up again in half-an-hour.

About the author (1998)

Jonathan David Gross received his Ph.D. from Columbia University, where he was a President's Fellow. He is an assistant professor of English at DePaul University in Chicago.

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