Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 34.djvu/390

 to two other constituencies, as at Lincoln the liberal party, to which he still belonged, was also, like himself, in favour of protection. His most remarkable performance was ‘A Letter to a late Cabinet Minister on the Crisis’ (1834), a pamphlet which ran through twenty editions. The ‘crisis’ was the breaking-up of the whig government on Lord Althorp's removal to the upper house. Bulwer, in the ‘Junius’ style, denounced the king's action as unconstitutional, and declared that a repeal of the Reform Bill might be anticipated. When Lord Melbourne returned to power he offered a lordship of the admiralty to Bulwer, explaining that the claims of his old colleagues prevented the offer of a higher post. Bulwer, however, declined, chiefly on the ground of his devotion to a literary career. In fact he did not take much further part in politics for the time, although he generally supported ministers, and on 22 May 1838 spoke in favour of the resolution for the immediate abolition of negro apprenticeship. The speech was published by the Anti-Slavery Society. In 1841 he lost his seat because he had recommended his constituents to accept a compromise on the small fixed duty on corn proposed by Lord John Russell.

Meanwhile he had been an active author. ‘Eugene Aram’ appeared in 1832, ‘Godolphin’ in 1833, ‘The Pilgrims of the Rhine’ and ‘The Last Days of Pompeii’ in 1834, ‘Rienzi’ in 1835, the two novels afterwards combined as ‘Ernest Maltravers’ in 1837 and 1838, ‘Night and Morning’ in 1841, and ‘Zanoni’ in 1842. The historical novels presuppose a considerable amount of diligent reading, and in 1836 he also published two large volumes of ‘Athens, its Rise and Fall,’ which he judiciously left incomplete after the appearance of the histories of Grote and Thirlwall. In 1841 he undertook, with Brewster and Lardner, a periodical called ‘The Monthly Chronicle,’ intended to combine scientific, literary, and political information. He contributed to it a first sketch of ‘Zanoni’ (called ‘Zicci’) and an ‘Historical Review of the State of Europe.’ During the same period he appeared as a dramatist. ‘The Duchess de la Vallière’ was brought out with Macready as Marquis de Bragelonne in 1836, and failed. In 1838, however, he wrote ‘The Lady of Lyons’ in a fortnight, upon a hint from Macready, who had just taken Covent Garden Theatre. It made a great success, and has ever since retained its position on the stage. In 1839 he produced ‘Richelieu, or the Conspiracy,’ and ‘The Sea Captain, or the Birthright,’ which ran through the season and was revived in 1869 at the Lyceum as ‘The Rightful Heir.’ In 1840 he produced the comedy of ‘Money’ at the Haymarket. Although these plays can scarcely be placed in a high position as literature, it must be admitted that Bulwer is almost the only modern English author of eminence who has succeeded in writing plays capable of keeping the stage.

After losing his seat in parliament Bulwer travelled in Germany, studied the language, and qualified himself to translate Schiller's ballads. In 1843 he produced his solid historical romance, ‘The Last of the Barons.’ Upon the death of his mother in December 1843 he succeeded by her will to the Knebworth property and assumed the surname of Lytton. His excessive industry had led to a breakdown of health. He tried hydropathy, and recorded the results in ‘Confessions of a Water Patient’ (1846). He was recommended to travel in order to recover his health, and for some years divided his time between residence at Knebworth and continental travelling.

In 1846 he published his ‘New Timon,’ a story in the romantic vein and in heroic couplets. An incidental description of contemporary statesmen included some often-quoted phrases (the ‘Rupert of debate’ applied to the then Lord Stanley) and an attack upon Tennyson, to which Tennyson replied effectively in ‘Punch.’ In 1847 he returned to fiction with ‘Lucretia, or the Children of the Night,’ in which the story of Thomas Griffiths Wainwright [q. v.] was turned to account, as he had previously used that of Eugene Aram. Some criticisms about his idealisation of criminals had provoked him to answer in ‘A Word to the Public.’ The novels were as unlikely to corrupt anybody's morals as to improve their taste. Bulwer, however, was already meeting the public demand for domestic propriety by the first of a series of novels which proved thoroughly satisfactory to the British moralist. ‘The Caxtons’ was passing anonymously through ‘Blackwood's Magazine,’ and was published in 1849. The vein thus struck was afterwards worked in ‘My Novel’ and in ‘What will he do with it?’ both by Pisistratus Caxton. During the appearance of ‘The Caxtons’ he struck off ‘at a heat’ his last historical romance, ‘Harold,’ which appeared in the spring of 1848, and found time simultaneously to produce an epic poem, ‘King Arthur,’ of which the first (anonymous) instalment appeared in March. His novels had by this time gained a wide popularity, and were appearing in collective editions. In December 1853 Messrs. Routledge gave him 20,000l. for a ten years' copyright of the cheap edition; at the end of that period they paid 5,000l.