William Godwin: his Friends and Contemporaries
Ch. X. 1819-1824
William Godwin to Lady Caroline Lamb, 25 February 1819
“My dear Madam,—You have
mistaken me. Mr G. Lamb has my sincere
good wishes. My creed is a short one. I am in principle a Republican, but in
practice a Whig.
“But I am a philosopher: that is, a person desirous
to become wise, and I aim at that object by reading, by writing, and a little
by conversation. But I do not mix in the business of the world, and I am now
too old to alter my course, even at the flattering invitation of Lady Caroline Lamb.”
Lady Caroline Lamb [née Ponsonby] (1785-1828)
Daughter of the third earl of Bessborough; she married the Hon. William Lamb (1779-1848)
and fictionalized her infatuation with Lord Byron in her first novel,
Glenarvon (1816).
George Lamb (1784-1834)
Lawyer and Whig MP for Westminster (1819) and Dungarvan (1822-34), he was the son of
Elizabeth Lamb Viscountess Melbourne, possibly by the Prince of Wales. He was author of a
gothic drama,
Whistle for It (1807) and served with Byron on the
management-committee of Drury Lane. His sister-in-law was Lady Caroline Lamb.
