Contemporary and Critical Opinion: Lady Caroline Lamb

Lady Caroline Lamb,from Glenarvon (1816):
Lord Glenarvon was of a disposition to attend so wholly to those in whose presence he took delight, that he failed to remember those to whom he had once been attached; so that like the wheels of a watch, the chain of his affections might be said to unwind from the absent, in proportion as they twined themselves around the favourite of the moment; and being extreme in all things, he could not sufficiently devote himself to the one, without taking from the other all that he had given.
It were vain to detail the petty instances of barbarity he employed. The web was fine enough, and wove with a skillful hand. He even consulted with Lady Mandeville in what manner to make his inhuman triumph more poignant - more galling; and when he heard that Calantha was irritated even unto madness, and grieved almost unto death, he only mocked at her folly, and despised her still remaining attachment to himself. "Indeed she is ill," said Sophia, in answer to his insulting inquiry, soon after her arrival at Mortanville Priory. "She is even dangerously ill." "And pray may I ask of what malady?" he replied, with a smile of scorn. "Of one, Lord Glenarvon," she answered with equal irony, "which will never endanger your health - of a broken heart." He laughed.