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! The minister of France Can need no intercession with the King. [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. In the Bastile. 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! Never! Your anger can recall your trust, To arméd thunder-bolts. The Arts lay dead, sole, Supremest monarch of the mightiest realm, Sire, I know 30 Your smoother courtiers please you best Myself with them, yet sometimes I would doubt [Louis appears irresolute. BARADAS [passing him, whispers]. But Julie, Shall I not summon her to court? 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 5 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? Louis. Lord Cardinal from me one by one you have severed 20 The bonds of human love. All near and dear 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: He was my friend, faithful and just to me: he was ambitious; 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. You all did see, that, on the Lupercal, 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 should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong, I will not do them wrong-I rather choose But here's a parchment, with the seal of Cæsar; 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:- |