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THE STRANGE CASE OF THE BROTHERS LAMB

In one of our latest articles I had mentioned the brothers Mary and Charles Lamb, authors of ‘Tales of Shakespeare’, a book written to make this great dramatist easy to read for children and young people in the early XIX century. Although I acknowledged the clarity and elegance of their style, I had complained about making Shakespeare seem too easy and light.

The main point of my criticism is that those who read ‘Tales of Shakespeare’ may think that they do not need to read the actual plays anymore. In truth, I would recommend the opposite direction: reading the tales after a direct contact with Shakespeare’s works. In this way the talent of the brothers Lamb can be fully appreciated.



I have to admit, nevertheless, that I had a totally wrong idea about the brothers Lamb’s personality. I used to think that they were as simple and naïve as their book was. This was a prejudice, a big hole in my knowledge about the cultural history of the English culture in the XIX century. Recently, I have been studying the sources of the Romantic literary and artistic movement in England; I learned thus that Charles Lamb played a key role in it, so did his sister Mary, up to a certain extent. Charles wrote many other books and essays; some of Mary’s writings are among the first feminist documents.

Moreover, the history of their lives has a dark and gloomy side. One night, on September 1796, 21 year-old Charles (born Feb/10, 1775 in London) found a horrid scene when he arrived home; his sister Mary (Dec/3, 1964, London), 10 years older than him, had stabbed and killed their mother, she had also wounded their father, who survived and was crying on a pool of blood. Mary, who suffered from episodes of mental illness, had started chasing a little girl apprentice with a kitchen knife. Exasperated by her mother’s screams, she had stabbed her in the heart. The only good news is that the little girl was spared.

Mary was declared temporally insane, a lunatic; their eldest brother, John, wanted to have her committed to a mental institution. Charles, however, who loved her sister tenderly, took full responsibility of her and dedicated the rest of his life to take care of her. From time to time, Mary had to spend some weeks at a private mental hospital; but most of the time she kept a sound mind and helped and supported her brother Charles in his literary career. Charles never married; together they formed a strange but creative sort of couple; they kept a circle of friends, artists, journalists and poets, who used to like and admire her. Charles and Mary’s home became a meeting place for many celebrities of the Romantic epoch.

Tales from Shakespeare’, written in collaboration, was published in 1807; since then, it has never been out of print. But the epilogue of the story is somewhat sad because Charles died in 1834, Mary survived him by 13 years, and, surely, her mental health completely deteriorated after her brother’s death. The clinic treatments for mental illness at that time were appalling.

We do not have their birth time; their Ascendant is unknown; there are no planets in watery signs in either chart, this provokes a difficulty to cope with emotions. There is a lot of air (mental activity) in Charles’ chart, he was an extremely intelligent man, but he has no fire; Mary’s fire (Moon, Sun, Mercury) provided him with courage, enthusiasm and meaning of life; from this perspective, theirs was a good match.

So far in my research, I have not found any serious study about Mary’s killing her mother; most comments only mention the fact avoiding any kind of speculation about her unconscious motives. Mary’s Moon is in Leo conjunct to Uranus; her emotional outbursts were dramatic and unpredicted; as a child, she needed lots of care and understanding; but her mother, dedicated to her first son, would hardly pay attention to her. Mary repressed her emotions; when Charles was born, she devoted herself to protect and educate her little brother. Besides, she had to work as a seamstress to help her mother. We can speculate that the killing was an expression of Mary’s resentment, a sort of liberation from a feeling of imprisonment.

I suspect that Charles’ Saturn is the III House (brothers and sisters, communication, basic education); he left school when he was only 14 years old, he stammered, and there was a relation of dependence with his sister. This is an obvious case of Shadow projection which was worked on in a positive way; Mary became the axis of his life, she was his anchor and best companion (Saturn is in Libra, sign of alliances).
 
Even more significant from a psychological perspective, Mary must have been acting out Charles own pathology. Sometime before Mary’s psychotic episode, Charles had had a serious depression and had to spend some weeks at the mental hospital. Although he always had a melancholic side, he never went back to a clinic after taking responsibility for his sister. Mary took charge of the mental illness of the family; a very unconscious pact and a deep and complex expression of love.
Surprisingly enough, there are no films about them, only one made in 1938t hat nobody has seen. In the XX century, Charles Lamb lost most of his popular appeal as a writer, but he is seriously studied and admired in academic circles. I am sure that with his Pluto’s return (his Pluto is in Capricorn), Charles will be rediscovered, his works unearthed and appreciated by new generations of readers.(the end)

Tales from Shakespeare

Mary Lamb /


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by xavier_astro | 2014-07-01 00:00 | 文学  

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