CXLIII. – RICHELIEU'S VINDICATION. BULWER. [SIR EDWARD GEORGE EARLE BULWER-LYTTON, (generally known by his original name of Bulwer,) one of the most popular and distinguished of the living writers of England, was born at Haydon Hall, in the county of Norfolk, in 1805, and educated at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of a large number of novels, as well as of plays, poems, and miscellanies. He is a writer of various and versatile power, and his novels are remarkable for brilliant description, startling adventures, sharp delineation of character, and -especially the later ones-a vein of philosophical reflection. The moral tone of his earlier works is not always to be commended, but in this respect, as well as in substantial literary merit, there is a marked improvement in those of later date. The following scene is from "Richelieu," a play founded upon certain incidents in the life of the great French statesman of that name.] 5 RICHELIEU. Room, my Lords, room! France Can need no intercession with the King. The minister of [They fall back. LOUIS. What means this false report of death, Lord Cardinal? RICHELIEU. Are you then angered, sire, that I live still? RICHELIEU. Not mine: look elsewhere! Louis my castle swarmed with the assassins. BARADAS [advancing]. We have punished them already. Huguet is now In the Bastile. Oh! my Lord, we were prompt 10 To avenge you 15 RICHELIEU. WE? Ha! ha! you hear, My liege! What page, man, in the last court grammar Service to France? I have none! Lives the man LOUIS. What! so haughty! 5 Remember, he who made can unmake. RICHELIEU. Never! trust, Never! Your anger can recall your To arméd thunder-bolts. The Arts lay dead, Sire, I know nor measure 30 Your smoother courtiers please you best [Louis appears irresolute. BARADAS [passing him, whispers]. But Julie, Shall I not summon her to court? 5 LOUIS [motions to Baradas, and turns haughtily to the Cardinal]. Enough! Your Eminence must excuse a longer audience. To your own palace: - For our conference, this RICHELIEU. Good my liege! for Justice Though loathed by Charity, might ask for justice! As men who ask man's rights! my liege, my Lord, In the pale presence of the baffled Murther? from me 20 The bonds of human love. Marked out for vengeance one by one you have severed All near and dear exile, or the scaffold. You find me now amidst my trustiest friends, My closest kindred; you would tear them from me; 25 Enough of plots and treasons for one reign! I patience, heaven! sweet heaven! Sire, from the foot Of that Great Throne, these hands have raised aloft 30 On an Olympus, looking down on mortals And worshipped by their awe - before the foot Of that high throne - spurn you the gray-haired man, 1 CXLIV. 2 ANTONY'S ADDRESS TO THE ROMANS. SHAKSPEARE. FRIENDS, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears: I come to bury Cæsar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interréd with their bones: He was my friend, faithful and just to me: And Brutus is an honorable man. He hath brought many captives home to Rome, Did this in Cæsar seem ambitious? When that the poor have cried, Cæsar hath wept: Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; And Brutus is an honorable man. Was this ambition? Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke; You all did love him once, not without cause: 3 4 And men have lost their reason! Bear with me: My heart is in the coffin there with Cæsar, But yesterday the word of Cæsar might O Masters! if I were disposed to stir I will not do them wrong—I rather choose And, dying, mention it within their wills, Unto their issue. If you have tears, prepare to shed them now. The first time ever Cæsar put it on; 'T was on a summer's evening in his tent; That day he overcame the Nervii : Look! In this place ran Cassius's dagger through:- Through this, the well-belovéd Brutus stabbed; And, as he plucked his cursed steel away, This was the most unkindest cut of all! |