The Mystery of "A New Canto"

by Lyndsey Oster

With a name like Lamb, one would think of a gentle person. Lady Caroline Lamb is far from a gentle woman. Lamb's poem "A New Canto" was published in 1819 after her first novel and before the second. The poem was written seven years after her separation from Byron and was also written at a time when her husband was frequently gone. Although the specific publishing history is somewhat a mystery, the likelihood of Lamb using the same publisher for her poems as for her novels is quite high. Her writing became popular because of the scandal surrounding her affair with Byron. The meaning of her poem is completely associated with Byron, which has led to her fame.

Lamb is unpredictable, passionate, selfish, and immature. When combining these elements, the end result is a writer with these elements and more. Lady Caroline's writing came into the public eye with her first novel, Glenarvon but she also wrote poetry and letters. Henry Blyth, the author of Caro, The Fatal Passion, remarks about her diaries and letters that her words "seem to have been thrown on these faded pages as though someone had seized a dictionary and had tipped them out in confusion across the paper" (Blyth, 40). Strangely enough, not many of her poems are well known or published. The spotlight is consistently brought back to her novels, Glenarvon, Graham Hamilton, and Ada Reis.

Lamb is said to have had a talent for writing prose as well. She is said to have been overly descriptive as she "overloaded with adjectives" (Blyth, 42). She wrote sporadically and about many different topics and the end result is confusion. She often scratched words out but made few corrections which could suggest she did not read through her work.

Lamb is considered a true romantic. She thought Wordsworth too simple, but enjoyed Coleridge. She still wanted more from writing ­ her own and others. Lamb "wanted stronger flavor of tumultuous ardor and knightly heroism" (Blyth, 42). She enjoyed Taming of the Shrew and secretly thought of herself as similar to Katharina. Lamb is said to have wanted a "heroic" male to get rid of all her bad temper, behavior and lack of control. This seems to be why she was so drawn to Lord Byron.

Sometime between 1809 and 1812, Lady Caroline became increasing unhappy and restless in her marriage with William Lamb. She began to desire excitement and "intoxication of some wild escapade" (Blyth, 60). Lamb was given the proof of a book of verse that was going to be published soon and was to give her opinion on it. This book of verse was Childe Harold by Lord Byron. From here, the affair with Byron and Lamb began and grew into quite a dramatic relationship. Throughout their affair, she wrote many love letters to Byron that to this day are still around. The affair only lasted for about four months and after their separation in 1812, Lamb began to go downhill.

Lamb became obsessed with Byron. She stalked him, dressed in disguise to see him and many other stunts. All of this passion and drama and the combination of her husband's frequent absence due to his political career, motivated her to write her novels and the poem "A New Canto." All of the novels and this poem are very obviously based on Byron and her affair with him. In "A New Canto" Lamb constantly refers to things said by Byron or written by him.

Because the publication history of "A New Canto" is virtually impossible to find, there can only be speculation about its own publication. The publication history of all three novels is quite similar, so that speculation can be spread to this poem. On May 9, 1816 Glenarvon was published anonymously. The novel was written in Caroline's longhand which was not easy to read. She therefore called a professional copier when the novel was finished. Lady Caroline told her page to tell Mr. Woodhead that the author of the text, "Mr. William Ormonde" had died and it would have to be published anonymously. The novel was then sent to John Murray who was connected to Byron's publishing of Childe Harold. Murray rejected the book and was then sent to Henry Colburn. Colburn was a publisher of light fiction and was also "an astute judge of public taste he decided he had a best seller and had to decide how many copies to print" (Blyth, 195). The novel was published in three slim volumes with "rich glit and leather binding" and there was little doubt of who the author was. The novel was an instant success with the upper and middle classes because of all of the scandal and drama that surrounded the affair between Byron and Lamb. Society was very interested in what Lady Caroline would have to say about this relationship ­ or rather, what her "fictional" characters would say.

The same publisher published her next two novels and "A New Canto" may very well have been published along with this man. "A New Canto" was published in 1819, after her first novel.

At this time, not many females were well known for their poetry. If the women were well known, men still dominated the Romantic Era. Lady Caroline seems to be well known only because of her affair with Byron. Without this attention she received because of his fame and her high social position, she may not have been recognized at all for her writing.

The story surrounding Lady Caroline's poems and writings only adds to the appeal. The poem is filled with references to Byron and with the understanding of their relationship and how she was unhappy with the ending of their relationship, the poem becomes that much more interesting. Society at that time became interested in her work because it was based on Byron and the details of their affair. Society today can still hold the same interests.

The first line in "A New Canto" "I'm sick of fame" (Duncan Wu, 650) is supposed to be in the voice of Byron. The entire tone of the poem is based on what Duncan Wu calls the "persona of Byron."

In stanza two, Lamb writes the line "Nor lordly purse to print or persevere" (Wu, 650) which is a direct attack on Byron. This remark implies that Byron had to pay for his poetry to be published because it was not well received. This kind of attack that may be obvious to people familiar with their relationship has directly contributed to the success and fame of Lady Caroline.

This type of attention only helped in getting her name recognized and mostly with the huge success of her first novel. Her next two novels were nowhere near as successful as her first, and it is uncertain how successful her poetry was at that time. Her name was successful in getting recognized which she states she desires. In stanza 26, Lamb says, "Mad world! For fame we rant, call names, and fight - / I scorn it heartily, yet love to dazzle it" (Wu, 657). She is not shy to mention that she desires fame and the final line of the poem confirms this: "And keep my name in capitals, like Kean" (Wu, 657).

Lady Caroline is also not bashful at making attacks on Byron's poetry. With three words, "hey-down-derrified" Lamb is insulting the level of inspiration in Byron's poems by using the term that means "meaningless refrain" (Wu, 657).

Lamb's feelings towards Byron are clearly seen between and in the lines of her poem. These attacks function to shape the meaning of the poem as something other than a poem about what she calls "doomsday." The poem takes on an entirely different meaning with the knowledge of her affair with Byron. The poem takes on a type of soap opera style with all of the emotions and history surrounding it. It becomes something based on passion and adultery instead of some kind of vision seen by Lamb.

Without Lord Byron, Lady Caroline may not have ever been inspired to write what she has. Or if she did write without his inspiration, she may have never been as well known as she did become. Lady Caroline has earned her fame in the realm of Romantic poets and much of that is due to Lord Byron and to Lady Caroline Lamb's opposition to her name.

Works Cited

Blyth, Henry. Caro, The Fatal Passion. New York: Coward, McCann and Geoghegan,
1972.

Cecil, David. Melbourne. Great Britain: Constable and Company Limited, 1954.

Manchester, Sean. Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know. London: Gothic Press, 1992.

Wu, Duncan. Romanticism: An Anthology. 2nd ed. Malden: Blackwell Publishers,
1998.