Quote:
Originally Posted by titania7
She tended to bring about destruction wherever she went (like Lord Byron, she was thought of as "mad, bad, and dangerous").
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And yet, titania, you obviously have a great respect for her, and your only (although surely affectionate?) criticism of her is: 'What an incorrigible little minx!! '
The 'mad, bad and dangerous to know' quotation of course comes from Lady Caroline Lamb, and I think it was made more out of romantic interest than criticism. On Byron's death, he had the status of, say, a rock star today, and the story of the return of his pillaged body returning through England to its final destination in Hucknall parish church here in Nottinghamshire (we have more than D. H. Lawrence, Samuel Butler and Robin Hood) is well documented. And last month, the Greeks made 19 April – the date of Byron's death – a national holiday. Byron has long been a hero in that country.
And oddly enough, Carl Van Doren's comment on Elinor Wylie (reproduced in Edmiston and Cirino's
Literary New York is relevant here:
'What in Washington had seemed shocking, in New York seemed dramatic. Almost nobody knew exactly what her story was, but everyone knew she had a story and thought of her as some kind of heroine.'
Yes, it appears that being 'mad, bad and dangerous to know' can sometimes confer a hell of a lot of respect.