Hello, and happy Tuesday!

First, a NOTICE: I have now twice mis-stated the date on which Risky Regencies’ JANE AUSTEN MOVIE CLUB will discuss the Olivier/Garson Pride & Prejudice! (Careless. Sorry.)

The correct date is Tuesday, March 4. (I kept saying Tuesday, March 3, which doesn’t exist. In this universe, anyway.)

(For those of you joining us for the first time: the Jane Austen Movie Club meets here the first Tuesday of every month, and sometimes on other Tuesdays, to discuss various Jane Austen TV and movie adaptations. Please join us!)

Second, a CLARIFICATION: Those of you who get our brilliant newsletter might have received the implication that our discussion of this same Olivier/Garson Pride & Prejudice will follow the airing of it on PBS.

Sadly, this is not the case. They’re not airing it. (Though if you ask me, they should just stop showing all that other silly stuff and become the All Jane Austen All the Time network…) So if you’d like to participate in our discussion, you can either do it from memory, or track down a copy of the DVD or tape within the next two weeks… Or just stop in and say hi!

Third, a QUESTION: The BBC Emma (with Kate Beckinsale) airs March 23. I had originally not scheduled it for discussion on the following Tuesday (March 25) because if we run through too many Austen adaptations too quickly, we’ll run out of things to discussion in the Club and the Club will have to end sooner.

Then again, we could always talk about adaptations of the Scarlet Pimpernel, Sharpe, Hornblower, etc… And the advantage of discussing it on March 25 is that it will be fresh in everyone’s minds…that is, if they’ll be watching the showing on PBS.

So: what’s your vote? Beckinsale Emma on March 25, or not?

And now, fourth, so that this post won’t be entirely full of information and other tedious stuff, here is part of an actual 1804 NOTICE OF HORSES FOR SALE:

TO BE SOLD AT LEWES, ON THE FIRST OF AUGUST

Being the vacant Day between BRIGHTON and LEWES races.

LOT 1: THE Stallion, Waxy, by Pot8o’s, out of Maria, by Herod, her dam, Lisette, by Snap, out of Miss Windsor. He is sire of Mr. Wilson’s colt, that was second for the Derby Stakes.

LOT 2: Kezia, by Satellite, out of Waxy and Worthy’s dam, &c. &c. with a colt at her foot by Waxy, and covered by him again.

Long live the Regency!

Cara
Author of MY LADY GAMESTER, in which the horses had slightly less strange names than Pot8os)

When I was a kid, I loved fairy tales! I liked the fluffy, Disney-fied ones (great clothes! I mean, who doesn’t like Cinderella’s blue dress?), but my favorites were from a book of Grimm’s Fairy Tales my grandmother gave me. The ones where the stepsisters chopped off bits of their feet to fit into Cinderella’s slipper, stuff like that. Dark and fantastical, with lots of tangled forests and crumbling castles. And curses, of course. I love curses. I also liked stories from the ballet, where the heroine was usually a ghost or a part-time bird, and there were curses galore, as well as dark wizards and sacrificing for love. They had great clothes, too. But I always liked the dangerous romance of all that more than the bland princes and singing mice of the Disney version. Yeah, I was a weird kid. Probably a weird adult, too, since I still eat up all that stuff with a spoon!

As I get older and read more and more bios of real-life historic couples, I find few (if any) Disney HEAs. If there was an HE at all, it was usually twisting and halting, full of surprises and compromise. Like life itself, I guess, with fewer talking animals and dark omens than in fairy tales. But I often find the darker, more complex the “romance” the greater the story.

There are so many interesting Regency-era couples, but I chose only two to talk about. No Disney wedding endings here, of course! We’re going to look at Lady Caroline Lamb and Lord Byron (a Mess if there ever was one, but I find that whole “Crazy Love” thing fascinating, not having felt anything at all like it since high school. Thankfully). And Charles James Fox and Elizabeth Armistead, because theirs was a twisted path indeed, ending in a deep devotion.

Lady Caroline Ponsonby Lamb was the wife of William Lamb (the younger son of Byron’s friend Lady Melbourne, another fascinating character), the daughter of Harriet Bessborough (Georgiana’s sister–huh, whaddya know, more fascinating characters!), and full of all the creativity and instability (to say the least) her genes would suggest. When she met Byron in 1812, she was 27, with a few wild affairs to her name already. Byron was 24, famous as the melancholy, handsome author of Childe Harold. She read the poem before meeting him, and wrote him an anonymous fan letter, saying “You deserve to be and you shall be happy…” A few days later she set out to meet him at a party at Lady Westmoreland’s, but ran off when she saw him surrounded by other adoring women.

This, of course was the best thing she could have done to get his attention. He was pasionately in love with his lovers–until he was sure of their love, of course. Then not so much. By avoiding the introduction, she made Byron determined to meet her. She didn’t resemble his concept of Ideal Feminine Beauty, being tall, very thin, with short, curling blond hair and hazel eyes. After their first meeting, Byron said “The lady had scarcely any personal attractions to recommend her.” But Caro said “That beautiful pale face is my fate.”

But she also possessed a disregard of opinion that Byron seemed to covet (for all his posturing, it seems like he worried about “what people think” too much to be a true free spirit, at least not until later in his life). She was also exuberantly emotional, intelligent, creative, and well-read. They would read together, discuss poetry–and argue fiercely. Their affair shocked and dazzled London through April and May of 1812. They quarreled in public; when she wasn’t invited to a party he was at, she would wait outside on the street. When she refused to say she loved him more than her husband, he wrote “My God, you shall pay for this, I’ll wring that obstinate little heart.” But the ton hadn’t seen nothing yet. The real drama started when the affair ended.

In summer 1812, Byron was persuaded to leave London–without Caro, who had gotten out of control in her passion. She bombarded him with letters at his home at Newstead; when they were both in London, she snuck into his house disguised as page, ran after him, threatened to stab herself, etc. Finally, her family took her off to the country to recuperate. She held a dramatic bonfire, with village girls dressed in white dancing around the flames while Caroline threw letters and books into the fire. (I might have done this when I was 17, if my parents didn’t have strict rules about open flames in the back yard…)

Anyhoo, now I’ve gone on soooo long here, I think we’ll have to talk about the Foxes next week! In the meantime, as we wrap our Risky Valentine’s week special, who are some of your favorite couples?

This week we’re preparing for Romance’s favorite holiday, Valentine’s Day. Of course, the most romantic of us, our dear Janet, has the day and I’m certain she will handle it with respect and decorum…..ahem….

Most of what we know of St. Valentine’s Day is legend, including the belief that Valentine’s Day originated in the Roman festival of Lupercalia, in which, among other things, young men ran naked through the streets striking anyone who came in their way with shaggy thongs, whatever they are. Women purposely got in their way, because it was believed that being struck by naked men wielding shaggy tongs would increase fertility or guarantee safe childbirth.

There were about three Saint Valentines, but legend has it that the one attached to the celebration of love was a second century AD priest . Roman Emperor Claudius II believed unmarried men made better soldiers, so he banned soldiers from marrying. St. Valentine defied the emperor and married soldiers in secret. Valentine was caught and imprisoned, but he continued to do good deeds, like curing the blindness of his jailer’s daughter. He also is said to have penned a note to his sweetheart signed “from your Valentine,” and supposedly was executed on February 14. All that is really known of him is that he was made a saint by the early church.

The first mention of St. Valentine’s Day associated with romantic love comes from Chaucer’s poem, Parlement of Foules, written to honor the anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia.

For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make

Likely Chaucer was referring to a different St. Valentine’s Day, because the engagement took place on May 2. Later scholars assumed Chaucer’s poem meant February 14, but English birds have always been smart enough to wait for warmer weather to mate.

Here’s a fun fact. In 1400, a High Court of Love was established in Paris. It dealt with love contracts, betrayals, and violence against women. (Happy Valentine’s Day, mesdames)

The French also have the claim to fame of writing the first Valentine. Of course, it was written in London. Imprisoned in the Tower of London after the Battle of Agincort, the Duke of Orleans wrote a poem to his wife:

Je suis desja d’amour tanné; Ma tres doulce Valentinée…
(Charles d’Orléans, Rondeau VI, lines 1–2)

Ophelia (1601) mentions St. Valentine’s Day in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Pepys mentions Valentine’s Day, as well. By this time (mid-1600s) the tradition of giving gifts to ladies seems to have taken hold.

Sending love letters or specially made Valentines became a tradition by the late 1700s, continuing into “our” period, the Regency. In the 1840’s an enterprising American woman, Esther Howland, whose father owned a stationary store, had the idea of mass producing these Valentine’s Day love letters and the Valentine’s Day Card was born. To this day the Greeting Card Association gives an annual Esther Howland Award to the year’s best greeting card visionary.

What are your Valentine’s Day traditions?

*Sources of information: Wikipedia Valentine’s Day and Answers.com

Or maybe this:
Crossed with this:

When I was hoping for something sorta in the style of this:
Not that Cate Blanchett and Joseph Fiennes look like these particular characters. I just like the romantic, Renaissance-y feel of it.

Or this, if we cut out Scarlett Johansen, would work (the clothes are right, anyway):