IMS writes:
Lady
Caroline Lamb, wife of Prime Minister, the 2nd Viscount Melbourne,
took the risk when she became acquainted with Lord Byron. The Caroline Lamb who
I know is certainly not dangerous to know but she is, as well as being a writer
and producer, artistic director with the Dangerous to Know Theatre Company based in Manchester.
 |
| Caroline Lamb |
I first met Caroline in her
native Sedbergh and during our conversation it was evident that she had a great
admiration and enthusiasm for everything Brontë. I met Caroline again
recently in the convivial surroundings of Cobbles and Clay in Haworth. Wearing a top with Emily Brontë’s famous
words emblazoned on the front, and being on the last leg of a one hundred and
thirty mile walk, Caroline certainly is not in possession, either, of a
cowardly soul! She has written a play - The
Dissolution of Percy - about the last
years of Branwell Brontë - which deals with his failed love affair and it is a
drama about double standards and gender politics. Percy was the family name of
the Earl of Northangerland who featured in the Brontë children’s Angrian
stories.
Caroline, on her walk, has
followed in the steps of Branwell, starting in Broughton in Furness where he
was for a very short time, in 1840, tutor in the Poslethwaite household. Her
walk led her to Kendal from where Branwell may have written a letter to his
friend John Brown and then on to Cowan Bridge where four of his sisters went to
school. From there it was on to Gargrave, beside the banks of the River Aire,
where Frances Mary Currer had lived at Eshton Hall and also Robert Storey who
was known as the ‘Craven Poet’. Storey was published in the Yorkshire
newspapers at the same time as Branwell Brontë was having success in that
direction. Caroline had a long trek then to Halifax and then on to Leeds before
arriving in Haworth via Thornton.
At every venue she had given
readings from the Brontës’ poetry and prose and also items from individuals who have been inspired by them-
including a piece of writing which
fires the imagination with how a second novel by Emily may have begun. The evening in Haworth ended with three
Brontë poems- the first was Life
by Charlotte which perhaps shows that the spirit can bounce back from
adversity. The second poem was Farewell
written by Anne after the death of
the well regarded curate at Haworth, William Weightman. No Brontë readings
would be complete without hearing Emily’s great poem No Coward Soul is Mine and this is how a very pleasant evening ended.
The appreciative audience
wished Caroline, who will take the part of Emily Brontë, all the very best as
the play gets nearer to its first performance.
To echo Charlotte’s words as
Caroline prepares for her final stage of her journey walking over the bleak
moors from Haworth to Sowerby Bridge-
Oft a little morning rain
foretells a pleasant day. I hope so.
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