A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Lamb, Mary
LAMB, MARY,
The daughter of respectable parents, was born in London about 1766. She was subject to attacks of insanity, and in one of them, in 1796, brought on by over-exertion, and anxiety about her mother, then quite an aged person, she stabbed her mother to the heart, killing her instantly. After recovering from this attack, she resided with her brother Charles, the well-known author of "Essays of Elia," who devoted his whole life to her. They lived in or near London. In connection with her brother. Miss Lamb wrote two volumes of juvenile poetry; "Stories for Children, or Mrs. Leicester's School," and "Tales from Shakspere." Miss Lamb was remarkable for the sweetness of her disposition, the clearness of her understanding, and the gentle wisdom of all her acts and words, notwithstanding the distraction under which she suffered for weeks, and latterly for months, in every year. She survived her brother eleven years, dying May 20th., 1847. She was buried with him in Edmonton church-yard.