WEBVTT - Let Him Be Hanged There for a Lamb 0:00:00.920 --> 0:00:04.080 Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio 0:00:04.280 --> 0:00:14.480 and Aaron Manky. Listener discretion is advised. The first week 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:17.919 of December in eighteen twelve, when a frost had just 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:21.640 barely begun to cling to the expansive lawns of Brocket Hall, 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:25.920 Lady Caroline Lamb ordered that a massive bonfire be built. 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:30.400 Since Lord Byron had first arrived in London society a 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:34.040 little under a year ago, Caroline Lamb's behavior had become 0:00:34.200 --> 0:00:39.120 increasingly strange outrageous. Even the staff had learned not to 0:00:39.200 --> 0:00:43.520 ask too many questions. From the nearby village of Welwyn, 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:46.760 Caroline gathered a group of local girls and told them 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:50.760 all to dress in white. Within minutes, she was leading 0:00:50.760 --> 0:00:54.160 them down the road in a ghostly procession towards the 0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:58.440 sky licking orange flames. She was like a pied piper, 0:00:58.960 --> 0:01:02.680 pulling them forward, not with music, but with the implacable 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:07.520 magnetic force of her single minded resolve and her gleeful anger. 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:13.039 While the village girls danced around the flames, Caroline Lamb 0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:16.960 revealed an effigy she had built of Lord Byron, made 0:01:17.000 --> 0:01:21.800 of straw but unmistakable. She threw it onto the flames. 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:26.200 As the fire leapt higher and began to consume the 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:30.080 figure of straw, Caroline Lamb began tossing other things into 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:35.959 the fire, letters, quills, books, rings, and a golden locket. 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:40.720 And then, once everything Caroline Lamb had left of her 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:44.360 former lover was burning, she began to recite a poem 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:50.480 that she had written, Burn, Fire Burn, while wondering boys exclaim, 0:01:50.560 --> 0:01:56.440 all gold and trinkets glitter in the flame. Any chill 0:01:56.640 --> 0:02:00.600 in the December air was gone. Caroline Lamb was so 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:03.400 close to the heat of the fire that her hair 0:02:03.520 --> 0:02:07.440 clung with sweat to her forehead. She stood so close 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:10.200 to the flames that they reflected in her dark eyes, 0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:16.120 yellow orange, and dancing with a hellish fury, Caroline Lamb 0:02:16.160 --> 0:02:21.200 didn't seem to blink. Although history has made Lord Byron's 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:25.080 anonymous with the wild passions to poetry, it's his most 0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:29.560 famous lover, Caroline Lamb, who I confess I believe makes 0:02:29.560 --> 0:02:34.120 a more fitting figurehead for the Romantic era. Caroline Lamb 0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:38.720 was a woman driven mad with love, who shed all vanity, 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:44.840 all concerned for society or propriety, and devoted herself entirely 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:49.800 to the object of her affection. She quite literally lost 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:58.000 herself in poetry. Byron charming, handsome, vain, miserable. Byron was talented, 0:02:59.240 --> 0:03:02.080 but he never off site of his exact position in 0:03:02.160 --> 0:03:07.320 society and where he might move next. He was impatient 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:13.320 and easily bored. Isn't passion supposed to run deep? On 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:17.799 that December night in eighteen twelve, Caroline Lamb burned all 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:20.480 of the trinkets she had of her affair with the 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:25.320 era's most famous writer. But Byron's hold on her heart 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:28.720 would last for the rest of her life. The two 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:33.240 were locked in her wretched, beautiful dance, and when Caroline 0:03:33.320 --> 0:03:37.320 Lamb was scorned, she was happy to leave ashes in 0:03:37.400 --> 0:03:51.800 her wake. I'm Dana Schwartz and this is noble blood. Lord. 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:55.120 Byron's story began when he was a toddler living with 0:03:55.160 --> 0:03:58.280 his mother, and the two got word that his father, 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:02.600 mad Jack Buyer, had died and in his will left 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:05.080 all of his debts to his three year old son. 0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:09.400 Mad Jack had only married Byron's mother for her money. 0:04:09.560 --> 0:04:12.280 Everyone knew that, and it took about a year or 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:16.440 so before he worked his way through it. After another year, 0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:18.760 he was so heavily in debt that he was forced 0:04:18.800 --> 0:04:22.440 to go into exile, leaving his wife a newborn son 0:04:22.520 --> 0:04:27.279 alone to fend for themselves. Byron and his mother lived 0:04:27.279 --> 0:04:31.360 in Scotland above a shop. But then a stroke of luck, 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:36.760 when Byron was eight, his uncle, the Baron Byron, died 0:04:36.800 --> 0:04:42.719 without an heir. Young George Gordon Byron, future poet, inherited 0:04:42.880 --> 0:04:46.919 his title. It was a low ranking title, sure, but 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:50.520 it was still a title, and so young Byron and 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:53.240 his mother made their way from their home in Aberdeen 0:04:53.880 --> 0:04:59.719 down to the estate that Byron now owned, Newstead Abbey. 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:04.120 Nowstead Abbey was a wreck, a crumbling stone facade with 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:08.000 a half caved in ceiling and uneven floors. It would 0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:11.359 be impossible to live in and its upkeep would be 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:14.480 a drain on Byron's finances for the rest of his life. 0:05:15.279 --> 0:05:20.920 But still it was undeniably beautiful. There were sweeping grounds 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:26.760 and ancient edifices. It was a gorgeous Gothic fantasy playground 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:32.200 for the young Byron's imagination. Newstead Abbey, even in decay, 0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:37.039 represented everything in the world that Byron wanted. Even the 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:40.120 poet Byron couldn't see the poetic irony of it being 0:05:40.200 --> 0:05:45.760 uninhabitable after studying at Cambridge, Byron went on a grand 0:05:45.839 --> 0:05:49.560 tour of Europe, during which he published the first two 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:55.960 cantos of his epic, semi autobiographical poem Child Harold's Pilgrimage. 0:05:56.640 --> 0:06:02.440 Byron returned to England as a celebrity. Women swooned reading 0:06:02.520 --> 0:06:07.159 his poetry about a young, disaffected man searching for meaning 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:10.240 and failing to find it among the hedonism and revelry 0:06:10.279 --> 0:06:15.040 of high society, who before Byron had so perfectly captured 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:19.839 that exquisite pain of being surrounded by people but feeling alone. 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:26.000 Then stirs the feeling infinite so felt in solitude where 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:33.080 we are least alone. Lady Caroline Lamb was born to 0:06:33.120 --> 0:06:36.400 the type of family that Byron could have only dreamed of. 0:06:37.920 --> 0:06:40.560 She was the daughter of an earl and a countess, 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:46.000 niece to the famous Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, and 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:48.400 wife of a man who would go on to become 0:06:48.440 --> 0:06:53.080 Prime Minister. At twenty six, when she received an advanced 0:06:53.160 --> 0:06:56.440 copy of Byron's Child Harold, she was one of the 0:06:56.480 --> 0:07:02.000 most eminent women in London. Caroline Lamb was immediately smitten. 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:07.600 She had heard stories about Lord Byron, about his rakish adventures. 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:10.240 She had heard about when he was a student at Cambridge, 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:12.880 and he had been forbidden from keeping his dog with 0:07:12.960 --> 0:07:16.120 him as a pet, and so, because the rules did 0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:19.680 not explicitly forbid it, Byron had brought with him a 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:26.080 pet bear. And now Caroline read his poetry, it was irresistible. 0:07:27.240 --> 0:07:31.000 She begged their mutual friend Samuel Rodgers to introduce her, 0:07:31.760 --> 0:07:35.680 but Rogers new Byron, and more importantly, he knew Byron's 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:41.120 reputation with women. Child Harold was already a sensation, and 0:07:41.280 --> 0:07:46.400 Rogers was flooded with requests from increasingly desperate women, begging 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:50.600 him to introduce them to his famous friend, and so 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:54.880 with Caroline Lamb, Rogers demurred. He told her that Byron, 0:07:54.960 --> 0:07:57.760 who bit his nails, had a club foot and eyes 0:07:57.800 --> 0:08:01.360 too close together, was almost certain lee nowhere near as 0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:04.440 attractive as the man that Caroline Lamb conjured in her 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:09.760 mind while reading Child Harold, the sensitive, lonely poet. She 0:08:09.840 --> 0:08:13.760 imagined when she read lines like there is a pleasure 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:16.920 in the pathless Wood, there is a rapture on the 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:21.760 lonely shore. But Caroline Lamb would not be dissuaded from 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:24.760 meeting him if he's ugly as as up. I must 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:29.000 see him, she informed Rogers. She decided to write Byron 0:08:29.120 --> 0:08:33.520 a letter. She addressed it to Child Harold. I have 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:36.600 read your book and cannot refrain from telling you that 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:39.680 I think it beautiful. You deserve to be and you 0:08:39.800 --> 0:08:43.559 shall be happy. Do not throw away such talents as 0:08:43.559 --> 0:08:47.160 you possess in gloom and regrets for the past. And 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:51.440 above all, live here in your own country, which will 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:56.600 be proud of you. She left the letter anonymous. Lord 0:08:56.600 --> 0:09:00.760 Byron had been receiving a lot of letters from female admirers. 0:09:01.520 --> 0:09:04.400 He had been receiving so many letters, in fact, that 0:09:04.480 --> 0:09:08.640 when women requested locks of his hair, he started sending 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:13.760 back clippings from his dog boat swing. But Caroline Lamb 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:16.600 could do something that none of the other women writing 0:09:16.640 --> 0:09:20.880 to Byron could. She could imitate him his poetry rather 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:26.080 almost perfectly, And so just two days after she sent 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:30.280 the first anonymous letter, she sent a second, in which 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:33.800 she wrote fourteen lines with the same meter of child Harold, 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:38.760 a perfect homage strong love I feel for one I 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:42.400 shall not name what I should feel for THEE could 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:47.520 never be the same. But admiration interest is free, and 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:51.880 that Child Harold may receive from me. For a man 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:55.760 who loved himself as much as Byron did, Caroline Lamb 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:59.320 figured correctly there would be almost nothing more appealing than 0:09:59.400 --> 0:10:03.040 his own, and reflected back at him. She signed this 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:07.280 letter ardent, as her passions were. She was still a 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:11.480 married woman and discretion was needed. Caroline Lamb ended the 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:14.800 second letter by asking Byron to leave his response for 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:19.320 her at the Circulating library on Bond Street under the 0:10:19.400 --> 0:10:26.360 false name Mr. Sidney Allison. Caroline Lamb waited and waited 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:38.000 and waited. No response came. It was a rare thing 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:43.680 for a woman like Caroline Lamb, astronomically aristocratic, not to 0:10:43.760 --> 0:10:47.240 get what she wanted. But her moment with Byron would 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:51.160 come soon enough. She saw him for the first time 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:54.640 just a few days later in person, at a ball 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:59.160 held by Lady Westernmoreland, where he stood so pale and 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:03.200 still that he looked like a marble statue come to life. 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:09.480 Byron was sometimes described as an alabaster vase lit from within. 0:11:10.240 --> 0:11:13.920 He was not classically handsome, but he was impossible to 0:11:13.960 --> 0:11:18.360 look away from, so charming and compelling that he had 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:22.120 both women and men desperate for just a moment of 0:11:22.200 --> 0:11:25.360 his attention. He was standing at the edge of the 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:29.720 ball room. Byron, born with a club foot and always 0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:33.120 self conscious about it, never danced, but over the years 0:11:33.120 --> 0:11:36.720 in his bedroom alone, he had figured out exactly the 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:40.199 right way to stand so his club foot was impossible 0:11:40.240 --> 0:11:43.840 to see, so that from a distance he looked tall 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:48.880 and straight and striking. He was an incredibly vain man. 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:52.800 He would go daze, eating only biscuits and water. To 0:11:52.880 --> 0:11:57.320 maintain his slender figure. He kept his necklines low to 0:11:57.400 --> 0:12:00.480 show off the curve of his collar bone. He knew 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:02.880 just how to look at a woman from underneath his 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:05.840 dark curls, to make it so that she would never 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:09.680 be able to think of anyone else. At the party, 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:15.400 Lord Byron saw Caroline Lamb, and Caroline Lamb saw him 0:12:15.400 --> 0:12:19.000 flirting with other women, but the two made eye contact 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:23.400 from across the room while she danced, and Byron, proud 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:27.040 of himself for declining to answer her letter for making 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:32.040 her weight, prepared to make his introductions. But before he 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:36.520 could approach her, Caroline Lamb was gone. She had left 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:41.840 the party early. Byron was enthralled a woman that first 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:44.640 not only had written to him, but then had chosen 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:47.640 to shrug her shoulders and glide out of a party 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:50.840 before they could meet in person. If he hadn't written 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:53.280 back to her, she figured he could be the one 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:56.959 to chase her. But cool and elegant as she had 0:12:57.000 --> 0:13:01.559 seemed leaving the Westernmoorland ball, when Caroline got home, her 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:04.640 heart was pounding with the memory of that strange and 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:08.800 handsome man. In her diary that very night, she wrote 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:12.240 the words that would be associated with Byron for centuries 0:13:12.280 --> 0:13:17.880 to come, mad, bad, and dangerous to know. But she 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:21.760 wrote another sentence about Byron less remembered. Yes, but for 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:28.320 Caroline Lamb, far more prophetic that beautiful pale face. She wrote, 0:13:28.840 --> 0:13:38.840 will be my fate. One morning, without announcing himself, Lord 0:13:38.880 --> 0:13:43.319 Byron came with his friend Samuel Rodgers to Caroline Lamb's house. 0:13:44.200 --> 0:13:47.280 She had not been expecting guests, and she entered the 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:51.439 house hot and sweaty from a morning of riding. Byron 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:56.360 had come with a gift. Arose, your ladyship, I am told, 0:13:56.600 --> 0:13:59.440 likes all that is new and rare. For a moment 0:13:59.800 --> 0:14:04.280 he said it was done. Caroline Lamb was in love, 0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:08.200 and the two began an affair that turned aristocratic London 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:13.120 on its head for months. Byron called on Caroline Lamb, 0:14:13.200 --> 0:14:17.559 frequently bringing her books and holding her young son, Augustus 0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:21.800 on his knee. Caroline Lamb and Byron shared interests and 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:27.040 gardening and dogs and philosophy. They spent long evenings in 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:31.560 rooms lit only by dwindling fireplaces, reading The Castle of 0:14:31.560 --> 0:14:35.280 a Tronto side by side, or gossiping about people that 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:39.080 they met at parties. He called her Caro, and she 0:14:39.120 --> 0:14:43.080 adopted that nickname with everyone. The two wrote each other 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:48.360 multiple times a day. Byron told Caroline Lamb secrets he 0:14:48.400 --> 0:14:52.000 had never shared with anyone else. He told her about 0:14:52.040 --> 0:14:55.720 his first love, his cousin Mary, who broke his heart 0:14:56.080 --> 0:14:59.400 when he once overheard her saying do you think that 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:03.840 I could care anything for that lame boy? Byron told 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:07.480 Caroline Lamb about his love affairs at university with the 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:12.920 chorus star John Edelston and two other boys. Homosexuality was 0:15:12.960 --> 0:15:15.720 still a capital offense in England, one that could get 0:15:15.720 --> 0:15:20.640 Byron hanged. Kara sent Byron a lock of her pubic hair, 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:23.840 cut so close to the skin that it clung to 0:15:24.000 --> 0:15:29.000 dried blood. Byron sent back a golden locket engraved with 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:34.160 his family motto Cree Day Byron have faith in Byron, 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:37.520 but even when the two were in love, it was 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:42.280 never an easy domestic love. The two were artistic spirits 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:47.520 and they craved drama. Caro invited Byron to a waltzing dance, 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:52.480 and though he accepted, he seethed internally. His club foot 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:55.960 made him unable to dance, and he hated seeing Caroline 0:15:56.000 --> 0:15:59.680 with other partners. He had to spend the party talking 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:04.960 to Caroline's beautiful, dull, religious cousin, Annabella Millbank, in the corner. 0:16:06.000 --> 0:16:11.360 After that night, Byron forbade her from waltzing, and Caroline acquiesced. 0:16:12.440 --> 0:16:15.640 Their friends tried to keep them apart. They were fire 0:16:15.760 --> 0:16:20.000 and Gasolene, flint and steel, and sooner or later there 0:16:20.000 --> 0:16:24.680 would only be rubble left. Caroline was a powerful woman, 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:28.440 but she was impulsive and jealous. Having an affair when 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:30.360 you were married was all well and good if you 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:33.680 could be subtle about it, but Caroline was finding that 0:16:33.840 --> 0:16:38.880 increasingly difficult, especially once she saw how much attention Byron 0:16:39.000 --> 0:16:41.560 was getting from all of the other women in London. 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:47.200 Annabella Millbank chuckling Lee dubbed it by Romania, but even 0:16:47.280 --> 0:16:51.280 she couldn't resist asking her cousin Caroline to pass along 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:53.760 one or two of the poems she had written to 0:16:53.840 --> 0:17:02.000 the famous Byron. Caroline was born status and she didn't 0:17:02.040 --> 0:17:05.240 give a lick what other people thought of her. But 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:10.720 Byron low born Byron, craved approval, and more importantly, he 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:15.200 needed money. If he was to establish himself in proper society, 0:17:15.680 --> 0:17:19.440 he wouldn't need a rich and statused wife, and finding 0:17:19.440 --> 0:17:21.520 one would be all the more difficult if he was 0:17:21.600 --> 0:17:26.159 scandalized by a wild and public liaison with a married woman. 0:17:27.240 --> 0:17:31.200 When Caroline flippantly gave Byron a few of Annabella's poems, 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:33.760 he asked Caroline whether he thought that she might make 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:37.359 a good wife for him. Annabella was pretty, and she 0:17:37.520 --> 0:17:42.760 was rich, and unlike Caroline Lamb, she was unmarried. Caroline 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:44.920 said that she was probably going to marry a man 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:49.040 they knew named George Eden, And for good measure, Caroline 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:53.679 composed a sarcastic poem for Byron, where she sardonically wrote 0:17:53.800 --> 0:17:57.280 that Annabella would be a fond mother and a faithful wife. 0:17:58.000 --> 0:18:01.160 Nothing could possibly be less appeal link to the impulsive, 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:07.040 impossible to please Byron so easily bored. Nothing was boring 0:18:07.080 --> 0:18:11.480 about Caroline Lamb. But as the months drew on, and 0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:15.800 she felt Byron's attention begin to wane. Her own devotion 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:19.520 to him became all the more zealous. She became more 0:18:19.560 --> 0:18:23.840 public and more reckless in her ardor Byron's own friends 0:18:23.880 --> 0:18:28.280 were urging him to keep his distance. Byron found that challenging, 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:32.280 especially when Caroline Lamb wouldn't admit that she loved him 0:18:32.320 --> 0:18:35.640 more than her own husband. It's not that Byron could 0:18:35.640 --> 0:18:39.800 actually have her, he didn't even particularly want her anymore, 0:18:40.160 --> 0:18:42.240 but god damn it if he didn't need to hear 0:18:42.280 --> 0:18:46.280 her say that she loved him above all else. So 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:52.480 he hinted at elopement. Caroline Lamb responded too eagerly. His 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:56.160 bluff was called, and at the urging of his friends, 0:18:56.440 --> 0:19:05.400 he retreated from London to Newstead without saying goodbye. Caroline 0:19:05.480 --> 0:19:10.840 Lamb was baffled and heartbroken. She sent dozens of letters 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:14.480 to Newstead, all of which went without a reply. It 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:20.280 was maddening. Carol became increasingly frantic, and when she heard 0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:24.360 that Byron might have returned briefly to London, she was manic. 0:19:25.560 --> 0:19:28.959 She showed up at his home H James Street in 0:19:29.000 --> 0:19:32.480 the middle of the day, disguised as a page boy. 0:19:33.359 --> 0:19:35.879 She wasn't thinking of what a scandal it would cause 0:19:35.960 --> 0:19:38.320 to have a married woman alone at a man's house. 0:19:39.160 --> 0:19:43.320 All she could think of was Byron. Byron told her 0:19:43.359 --> 0:19:47.119 to leave. Caroline Lamb pulled a letter opener from his 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:51.479 desk and tried to stab herself, weeping with love and 0:19:51.560 --> 0:19:56.520 anger and frustration and loneliness. Didn't he remember how it felt? 0:19:56.960 --> 0:19:59.959 Hadn't he felt that loneliness that yearning when he had 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:04.720 written child Harold. Byron held her until she was calm, 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:09.480 until the knife dropped from her hand. Things had gone 0:20:09.720 --> 0:20:14.000 too far. Byron's friends could see it, and Caroline's family 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:18.080 could see it. Seeing her declining mental health, her in 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:21.280 laws insisted that she spent some time away from London 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:26.959 society in Ireland. With Caroline Lamb safely out of the country, 0:20:27.320 --> 0:20:30.879 Byron felt it was safe to write intimately again. The 0:20:30.920 --> 0:20:33.480 affair was over, but he didn't want to lose the 0:20:33.560 --> 0:20:36.600 flattery of having a noble woman like Caroline Lamb be 0:20:36.720 --> 0:20:39.920 madly in love with him, and so in his goodbye 0:20:40.040 --> 0:20:44.320 letter he wrote, I was and am yours freely and 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:48.320 most entirely to obey, to honor, love, and fly with 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:52.439 you when where and how you yourself might and may 0:20:52.600 --> 0:20:58.359 determine throw her a bone. He figured Caroline Lamb was 0:20:58.400 --> 0:21:00.560 out of the country and out of his head, and 0:21:00.680 --> 0:21:05.280 Byron began a new affair, another older titled woman, a 0:21:05.359 --> 0:21:10.880 friend of Caroline's, actually the Countess of Oxford. But love 0:21:11.000 --> 0:21:16.000 could not so easily extinguish itself in Caroline Lamb. She 0:21:16.040 --> 0:21:22.320 wrote him from Ireland endlessly. She stopped eating. She devoted herself, 0:21:22.520 --> 0:21:25.560 body and soul to the memory of her affair with 0:21:25.600 --> 0:21:30.200 Byron and the dream of rekindling it. If Byron thought 0:21:30.200 --> 0:21:32.399 he could dismiss her with a kiss on the cheek, 0:21:32.840 --> 0:21:38.520 he was incorrect, and so Byron had to be more explicit. Finally, 0:21:38.760 --> 0:21:43.199 after months of letters, he wrote her back, correct your 0:21:43.280 --> 0:21:48.840 vanity which is ridiculous, exert your absurd caprices upon others, 0:21:49.080 --> 0:21:54.080 and leave me in peace. The letter was harsh and unsympathetic, yes, 0:21:54.600 --> 0:21:58.280 but Byron did something a step further. He added to 0:21:58.320 --> 0:22:01.960 the letter a final piece of nastiness that would cause 0:22:02.000 --> 0:22:05.960 the blood to leave Caroline Lamb's face and ignite in 0:22:06.000 --> 0:22:10.359 her a new, white, hot furnace of humiliation and fury. 0:22:11.160 --> 0:22:14.960 In a final act of cruelty, Byron had sealed the 0:22:15.080 --> 0:22:31.040 letter with his new lover, Lady Oxford's wax stamp. Caroline 0:22:31.119 --> 0:22:36.959 Lamb became obsessed. Eventually, she and Byron both returned to London, 0:22:37.400 --> 0:22:41.680 officially excess, and Caroline Lamb became desperate to enact or 0:22:41.760 --> 0:22:44.119 revenge on the man who had helped her see the 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:47.119 poetry in the world and then thrown it out with 0:22:47.160 --> 0:22:51.719 a scornful laugh. Caroline wrote to Lady Oxford and threatened 0:22:51.760 --> 0:22:55.000 to tell the world of their affair. Lady Oxford laughed 0:22:55.040 --> 0:22:59.520 at the threat, but Byron was incensed and paranoid. The 0:22:59.600 --> 0:23:02.680 amazon she ated. Caroline Lamb would show up to parties 0:23:02.760 --> 0:23:06.120 and spend the night clutching a glass and staring at Byron. 0:23:06.800 --> 0:23:09.200 He joked to friends that he was being haunted by 0:23:09.200 --> 0:23:13.679 a skeleton. Caroline wrote to Byron and asked him to 0:23:13.760 --> 0:23:16.439 return her letters and all of the tokens of her 0:23:16.520 --> 0:23:20.040 love that she had sent along to him. He obliged, 0:23:20.160 --> 0:23:22.760 more or less some of the trinkets he had already 0:23:22.760 --> 0:23:26.199 given to other women. Caroline threw them all into a 0:23:26.240 --> 0:23:30.919 bonfire and danced around his smoldering effigy. She made up 0:23:30.960 --> 0:23:34.840 new buttons for her staff to wear. No cree day Byron, 0:23:34.920 --> 0:23:39.160 they said, a takeoff on his family crest have no 0:23:39.359 --> 0:23:44.280 faith in Byron. No one knew Byron like Caroline Lamb, 0:23:44.680 --> 0:23:48.040 and so no one knew, like Caroline Lamb, exactly how 0:23:48.080 --> 0:23:51.520 to get under Byron's skin. When she showed up at 0:23:51.560 --> 0:23:54.800 his home unannounced one afternoon to find him out, she 0:23:54.960 --> 0:23:57.920 snuck up to his desk and flipped open the inside 0:23:57.960 --> 0:24:02.679 cover of the book Bathic by William Beckford. Remember Me, 0:24:02.920 --> 0:24:09.000 she wrote inside. The threat was implicit. Beckford was famously bisexual, 0:24:09.680 --> 0:24:14.160 and Caroline knew all about Byron's attraction to men. Byron 0:24:14.240 --> 0:24:19.159 responded with the poem he never published, Remember the Remember 0:24:19.240 --> 0:24:24.399 the till least quench life's burning stream. Remorse and shame 0:24:24.560 --> 0:24:29.560 still cling to thee and haunt thee like a feverish dream. 0:24:29.640 --> 0:24:32.720 When Caroline Lamb heard that Byron wanted to give one 0:24:32.720 --> 0:24:35.480 of his favorite portraits of himself to his new lover, 0:24:35.760 --> 0:24:40.159 Lady Oxford, she used her talent for mimicry once again. 0:24:41.160 --> 0:24:44.080 She forged a letter from Byron and brought it to 0:24:44.119 --> 0:24:47.520 his publisher, where they kept the portrait. They gave it 0:24:47.560 --> 0:24:52.440 to her. Byron was furious. He was less angry that 0:24:52.520 --> 0:24:54.720 the portrait was gone, although it had been a very 0:24:54.760 --> 0:24:58.240 good one of him, and far more outrage that Caroline 0:24:58.320 --> 0:25:00.800 Lamb had been good enough to imitate at his writing. 0:25:01.560 --> 0:25:04.160 Caroline Lamb agreed that you would give him his portrait 0:25:04.720 --> 0:25:08.520 in exchange for a lock of his hair in his scorn. 0:25:08.880 --> 0:25:12.359 Byron agreed, but he sent along a clipping knot of 0:25:12.480 --> 0:25:21.199 his hair, but of Lady Oxford's. Byron and Caroline's final 0:25:21.320 --> 0:25:25.919 confrontation occurred at a party. I assume I'm allowed to 0:25:26.000 --> 0:25:29.840 waltz now, Caroline said to her former lover, who was 0:25:29.920 --> 0:25:34.159 standing as he always did on the sidelines. Well, of course, 0:25:34.280 --> 0:25:38.400 Byron responded, you do it so well and with everybody. 0:25:39.320 --> 0:25:42.800 Caroline Lamb broke a glass in her hand and made 0:25:42.840 --> 0:25:44.840 as if she were to cut herself with one of 0:25:44.880 --> 0:25:47.960 the shards. They wrote about it in the papers the 0:25:48.000 --> 0:25:53.080 next day. Byron joked that, ever the lover of theatrics, 0:25:53.080 --> 0:25:57.960 she had performed the dagger scene from Macbeth. Eventually, even 0:25:58.040 --> 0:26:02.280 Lady Oxford would leave Byron's favor when Byron's half sister, 0:26:02.480 --> 0:26:06.400 Augusta Lee, came to town. The two were so inseparable 0:26:06.800 --> 0:26:11.440 that even polite society couldn't help. But murmur about possible incest. 0:26:12.200 --> 0:26:16.919 I mean they were inseparable. And then the murmurs became 0:26:17.000 --> 0:26:22.040 a little louder after Augusta Lee had a baby, but 0:26:22.359 --> 0:26:26.920 Byron needed to get married to an heiress. Caroline Lamb's rich, 0:26:27.160 --> 0:26:31.800 well behaved apple cheeks cousin, Annabella Millbank, agreed to marry 0:26:31.880 --> 0:26:36.240 him the second time he asked. It was a disastrous 0:26:36.240 --> 0:26:40.680 decision from the onset. Byron never really wanted to marry her, 0:26:40.800 --> 0:26:42.879 but the fact that she had once turned him down 0:26:43.400 --> 0:26:46.720 meant that she was irresistible. He had to get her. 0:26:47.720 --> 0:26:51.879 Even Annabella realized she had made a mistake when Byron's 0:26:51.920 --> 0:26:54.280 best man gave her a wedding gift and wished her 0:26:54.280 --> 0:26:56.600 many years of happiness. As he sent them off on 0:26:56.640 --> 0:27:00.879 their honeymoon, the new lady Byron replied, if I am 0:27:00.920 --> 0:27:04.520 not happy, it will be my own fault. On the 0:27:04.520 --> 0:27:07.720 way back from the ceremony, Byron had a panic attack. 0:27:08.440 --> 0:27:11.400 It's too late, now it's done, it cannot be undone, 0:27:11.480 --> 0:27:14.400 he snapped at his new bride. As they exited the carriage. 0:27:15.000 --> 0:27:18.480 He smacked her hand away from his. That night, he 0:27:18.640 --> 0:27:22.480 slept in the master bedroom with his half sister Augusta 0:27:22.560 --> 0:27:24.800 while his new bride slept on the couch in the 0:27:24.880 --> 0:27:35.480 dressing room alone. Byron became increasingly despondent, and his financial 0:27:35.520 --> 0:27:40.680 troubles mounted. He rejected all income from his writing as 0:27:40.680 --> 0:27:43.480 a gentleman. He believed it wasn't appropriate for him to 0:27:43.520 --> 0:27:47.040 be paid for his poetry. He was manic and sour, 0:27:47.520 --> 0:27:51.280 drinking heavily, and highly suspicious that his new wife was 0:27:51.359 --> 0:27:56.000 sneaking through his private things. Annabella told friend that she 0:27:56.119 --> 0:28:00.440 was afraid her husband had gone mad. Just after their 0:28:00.520 --> 0:28:04.720 one year anniversary, one month after their daughter, Ada was born, 0:28:05.359 --> 0:28:08.720 Annabella took Aida and left to stay with her parents. 0:28:10.000 --> 0:28:15.000 Neither Annabella nor Ada would ever see Byron again. In 0:28:15.040 --> 0:28:17.920 an effort to ensure that Aida didn't descend into her 0:28:17.960 --> 0:28:23.800 father's poetic madness, Annabella steered her daughter toward mathematics. It 0:28:23.920 --> 0:28:29.159 seemed to take Ada Lovelace, Byron's only legitimate child, is 0:28:29.200 --> 0:28:33.560 often credited as the world's first computer programmer, thanks to 0:28:33.600 --> 0:28:38.320 her work on the Analytic Engine computer alongside Charles Babbage. 0:28:39.880 --> 0:28:43.520 As for Caroline Lamb throughout all of this, love and 0:28:43.600 --> 0:28:49.000 hate are impossible to disentangle completely. She comforted Annabella during 0:28:49.000 --> 0:28:53.360 her separation proceedings, giving Annabella all of the information she 0:28:53.440 --> 0:28:56.440 could that she could settle the divorce on her terms. 0:28:57.200 --> 0:29:00.960 Caroline spread rumors of Byron's incestu his affair with his 0:29:01.000 --> 0:29:05.680 half sister, but at the same time she wrote to Byron, 0:29:06.080 --> 0:29:09.000 comforting him and claiming to be on his side through 0:29:09.080 --> 0:29:13.040