Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton

“ Early in 1875 Lord Lytton declined an offer of appointment as governor of Madras, and in November of that year he was nominated governor-general of India by Disraeli. The moment was critical in the history of India. In Central Asia the advance of Russia had continued so steadily and so rapidly that Shere Ali, the amir of Afghanistan, had determined to seek safety as the vassal of the tsar. ”

“ XXIII. As some minstrel may fling, Preluding the music yet mute in each string, A swift hand athwart the hush'd heart of the whole, Seeking which note most fitly must first move the soul; And, leaving untroubled the deep chords below, Move pathetic in numbers remote;—even so The voice which was moving the heart of that man Far away from its yet voiceless purpose began, Far away in the pathos remote of the past; Until, through her words, rose before him, at last, Bright and dark in their beauty, the hopes that were gone Unaccomplish'd from life. ”

“ IX. But a wound deeper far, undescried, The young heart was rankling; for there, of a truth, In the first earnest faith of a pure pensive youth, A love large as life, deep and changeless as death, Lay ensheath'd: and that love, ever fretting its sheath, The frail scabbard of life pierced and wore through and through. There are loves in man's life for which time can renew All that time may destroy. Lives there are, though, in love, Which cling to one faith, and die with it; nor move, Though earthquakes may shatter the shrine. Whence or how Love laid claim to this young life, it matters not now. ”

“ There, hover'd in light, That image aloft, o'er the shapeless and bright And Aurorean clouds, which themselves seem'd to be Brilliant fragments of that golden world, wherein he Had once dwelt, a native! There, rooted and bound To the earth, stood the man, gazing at it! Around The rims of the sunrise it hover'd and shone Transcendent, that type of a youth that was gone; And he—as the body may yearn for the soul, So he yearn'd to embody that image. His whole Heart arose to regain it. "And is it too late?" No! for Time is a fiction, and limits not fate. Thought alone is eternal. ”

“ It rose In its sumptuous splendor and solemn repose, The supreme revelation of light. Domes of gold, Realms of rose, in the Orient! and breathless, and bold, While the great gates of heaven roll'd back one by one, The bright herald angel stood stern in the sun! Thrice holy Eospheros! Light's reign began In the heaven, on the earth, in the heart of the man. The dawn on the mountains! the dawn everywhere! Light! silence! the fresh innovations of air! O earth, and O ether! A butterfly breeze Floated up, flutter'd down, and poised blithe on the trees. ”

“ Judge her love by her life. For our life is but love In act. Pure was hers: and the dear God above, Who knows what His creatures have need of for life, And whose love includes all loves, through much patient strife Led her soul into peace. Love, though love may be given In vain, is yet lovely. Her own native heaven More clearly she mirror'd, as life's troubled dream Wore away; and love sigh'd into rest, like a stream That breaks its heart over wild rocks toward the shore Of the great sea which hushes it up evermore With its little wild wailing. ”

“ It was the form of a man, that seemed clad in arms like those on the wall, leaning on a spear, whose point was lost behind the shafts of the crommell. And the face grew in that moment distinct from the light which shimmered around it, a face large as some early god's, but stamped with unutterable and solemn woe. He drew back a step, passed his hand over his eyes, and looked again. Light and figure alike had vanished; nought was seen save the grey columns and dim fane. The Earl's lip curved in derision of his weakness. ”

“ MATILDA. True; you drew with emotion her portrait just now. LUVOIS. With emotion? MATILDA. Yes, yes! you described her, I know, As possess'd of a charm all unrivall'd. LUVOIS. Alas! You mistook me completely! You, madam, surpass This lady as moonlight does lamplight; as youth Surpasses its best imitations; as truth The fairest of falsehood surpasses; as nature Surpasses art's masterpiece; ay, as the creature Fresh and pure in its native adornment surpasses All the charms got by heart at the world's looking-glasses! ”

“ While the world was yet ours, While its sun was upon us, its incense stream'd to us, And its myriad voices of joy seem'd to woo us, We stray'd from each other, too far, it may be, Nor, wantonly wandering, then did I see How deep was my need of thee, dearest, how great Was thy claim on my heart and thy share in my fate! But, Matilda, an angel was near us, meanwhile, Watching o'er us to warn, and to rescue! ”

“ In light olive baskets, by window and door, Some hung from the ceiling, some crowding the floor, Rich wild flowers pluck'd by Lucile from the hill, Seem'd the room with their passionate presence to fill: Blue aconite, hid in white roses, reposed; The deep belladonna its vermeil disclosed; And the frail saponaire, and the tender blue-bell, And the purple valerian,—each child of the fell And the solitude flourish'd, fed fair from the source Of waters the huntsman scarce heeds in his course Where the chamois and izard, with delicate hoof, Pause or flit through the pinnacled silence aloof. ”

“ The Future's great veil our breath fitfully flaps, And behind it broods ever the mighty Perhaps. Yet! there's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip; But while o'er the brim of life's beaker I dip, Though the cup may next moment be shatter'd, the wine Spilt, one deep health I'll pledge, and that health shall be thine, O being of beauty and bliss! seen and known In the deeps of my soul, and possess'd there alone! ”

“ Never yet did the sun touch to ripples of gold Tresses brighter than those which her soft hand unroll'd From her noble and innocent brow, when she rose, An Aurora, at dawn, from her balmy repose, And into the mirror the bloom and the blush Of her beauty broke, glowing; like light in a gush From the sunrise in summer. Love, roaming, shall meet But rarely a nature more sound or more sweet— Eyes brighter—brows whiter—a figure more fair— Or lovelier lengths of more radiant hair— Than thine, Lady Alfred! ”

“ You, with such a love's memory deep in your heart! You the hero, whose life hath perchance been led on Through the deeds it hath wrought to the fame it hath won, By recalling the visions and dreams of a youth, Such as lies at your door now: who have but, in truth, To stretch forth a hand, to speak only one word, And by that word you rescue a life! ”

“ And were I but Earl of March, instead of king of England, this hall should have swum with the blood of those who have insulted the friends of my youth, the wife of my bosom. Off, Hastings!—I need no mediator with my servants. Nor here, nor anywhere in broad England, have I my equal, and the king forgives or scorns—construe it as ye will, my lords—what the simple gentleman would avenge.”
It were in vain to describe the sensation that this speech produced. There is ever something in courage and in will that awes numbers, though brave themselves. And what with the unquestioned valour of Edward ”

“ O Nature, say where, thou gray mother of earth, Is the strength of thy youth? that thy womb brings to birth Only old men to-day! On the winds, as of old, Thy voice in its accent is joyous and bold; Thy forests are green as of yore; and thine oceans Yet move in the might of their ancient emotions: But man—thy last birth and thy best—is no more Life's free lord, that look'd up to the starlight of yore, With the faith on the brow, and the fire in the eyes, The firm foot on the earth, the high heart in the skies; But a gray-headed infant, defrauded of youth, Born too late or too early. ”

“ For your eyes rest no more on the unquiet man, The wild star of whose course its pale orbit outran, Whom the formless indefinite future of youth, With its lying allurements, distracted. In truth I have wearily wander'd the world, and I feel That the least of your lovely regards, O Lucile, Is worth all the world can afford, and the dream Which, though follow'd forever, forever doth seem As fleeting, and distant, and dim, as of yore When it brooded in twilight, at dawn, on the shore Of life's untraversed ocean! ”

“ The woman who loves should, indeed, Be the friend of the man that she loves. She should heed Not her selfish and often mistaken desires, But his interest whose fate her own interest inspires; And rather than seek to allure, for her sake, His life down the turbulent, fanciful wake Of impossible destinies, use all her art That his place in the world find its place in her heart. I, alas!—I perceived not this truth till too late; I tormented your youth, I have darken'd your fate. Forgive me the ill I have done for the sake Of its long expiation! ”

“ Where the thunder is hoarded, the snows lie asleep, Whence the torrents are fed, and the cataracts leap; And, familiarly known in the hamlets, the vales Have whisper'd to him all their thousand love-tales; He has laugh'd with the girls, he has leap'd with the boys; Ever blithe, ever bold, ever boon, he enjoys An existence untroubled by envy or strife, While he feeds on the dews and the juices of life. ”

“ New realms to man's soul have been conquer'd. But those Forthwith they are peopled for man by new foes! The stars keep their secrets, the earth hides her own, And bold must the man be that braves the Unknown! Not a truth has to art or to science been given, But brows have ached for it, and souls toil'd and striven; And many have striven, and many have fail'd, And many died, slain by the truth they assail'd, But when Man hath tamed Nature, asserted his place And dominion, behold! ”

“ Matilda, this morn we went forth in the sun, Like those children of sunshine, the bright summer flies, That sport in the sunbeam, and play through the skies While the skies smile, and heed not each other: at last, When their sunbeam is gone, and their sky overcast, Who recks in what ruin they fold their wet wings? So indeed the morn found us,—poor frivolous things! Now our sky is o'ercast, and our sunbeam is set, And the night brings its darkness around us. ”

“ Edward’s firm hand trembled. The prelate continued, with a dry, caustic smile,—
“Sire, Sir Anthony Woodville, now Lord Rivers, has relieved you of all embarrassment; no doubt, my Lord Dorset and his kinsmen will be chevaliers enough to do the same. The Duchess of Bedford will but suit the decorous usage to retire a while into privacy, to mourn her widowhood. And when a year is told, if these noble persons reappear at court, your word and the earl’s will at least have been kept.”
“I understand thee,” said the king, half laughing; “but I have my pride as well as Warwick. ”

“ From the world's weary masters, that come upon earth Sapp'd and mined by the fever they bear from their birth: From the men of small stature, mere parts of a crowd, Born too late, when the strength of the world hath been bow'd; Back,—back to the Orient, from whose sunbright womb Sprang the giants which now are no more, in the bloom And the beauty of times that are faded forever! ”

“ I see that your heart is as dry as a reed: That the dew of your youth is rubb'd off you: I see You have no feeling left in you, even for me! At honor you jest; you are cold as a stone To the warm voice of friendship. Belief you have none; You have lost faith in all things. You carry a blight About with you everywhere. ”

“ So by night, so by day, With stern patient pathos, while time wears away, In the trench flooded through, in the wind where it wails, In the snow where it falls, in the fire where it hails Shot and shell—link by link, out of hardship and pain, Toil, sickness, endurance, is forged the bronze chain Of those terrible siege-lines! ”

“ Whenever a nobleman does not marry, people try to take away his character. Lord Mauleverer had never married; the Whigs had been very bitter on the subject; they even alluded to it in the House of Commons, that chaste assembly, where the never-failing subject of reproach against Mr. Pitt was the not being of an amorous temperament; but they had not hitherto prevailed against the stout Earl's celibacy. It is true that if he was devoid of a wife, he had secured to himself plenty of substitutes ”

“ But if thou doubtest the wisdom of this alliance, it is not too late yet. Let me dismiss my following, and cross not the seas. Unless thy heart is with the marriage, the ties I would form are threads and cobwebs."
"Nay," returned Edward, irresolutely: "in these great state matters thy wit is elder than mine; but men do say the Count of Charolois is a mighty lord; and the alliance with Burgundy will be more profitable to staple and mart."
"Then, in God's name, so conclude it!" said the earl, hastily, but with so dark a fire in his eyes that Edward, who was observing him, changed countenance ”

“ The air, With the chill of the dawn, yet unris'n, but at hand, Strangely smote on her feverish forehead. The land Lay in darkness and change, like a world in its grave: No sound, save the voice of the long river wave And the crickets that sing all the night! ”

“ The one commemorates the Black Prince's friend, Archbishop Waldeby; the other Richard the Second's aunt, Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester. The grave of a modern novelist and diplomatist, Edward Bulwer, Earl of Lytton, is close by; the place was selected by Dean Stanley on account of its proximity to the tomb of Sir Humphrey Bourchier, a knight who was killed at Barnet Field, the victory which established Edward the Fourth's claim to the crown. Lord Lytton described this and other fights during the Wars of the Roses in his well-known novel, The Last of the Barons. ”

“ We Neviles must hold fast to each other. Not a stick should be lost if the fagot is to remain unbroken. What say you?" and the earl's keen eye turned sharply on the young man.
"I say, my lord, that the Earl of Warwick was to me patron, lord, and father, when I entered yon city a friendless orphan; and that, though I covet honours, and love pleasure, and would be loth to lift finger or speak word against King Edward, yet were that princely lord—the head of mine House—an outcast and a beggar, by his side I would wander, for his bread I would beg." ”