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LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 TO MACREADY 
 
' LETTERS 
 
 OF 
 
 BULWER-LYTTON TO MACREADY 
 
 With an Introduction by 
 Brander Matthews j 
 
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 PRIVATELY PRINTED 
 THE CARTERET BOOK CLUB 
 
 NEWARK, NEW JERSEY 
 
 1911 
 
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Copyright , 1911, by The Carteret Book Club 
 
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 ©CLA303781 
 
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 INTRODUCTION 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 i 
 
 T y HE English drama had its sudden out- 
 Jlowering in the spacious days of Elizabeth; 
 its vigour lessened a little, though its violence 
 increased, under James and Charles; it sprang 
 again into luxuriant life during the Restora- 
 tion; and it did not die down until after Sheri- 
 dan and Goldsmith. It became feebler toward 
 the end of the eighteenth century, to flicker 
 almost to extinction during the middle of the 
 next hundred years. And in the final years of 
 the nineteenth century it revived again, to re- 
 veal itself as a vivacious rival of the novel. Prob- 
 ably we do not yet appreciate the full merit of 
 the plays written in the past two-score years 
 by the late Sir W. S. Gilbert and Sir A. W. 
 Pinero, Mr. Barrie and Mr. Shaw. But the 
 energetic vitality which we can discover in the 
 drama of our language from 1875 £01910, and 
 which is equally evident to-day in the younger 
 playwrights in both the British and the Ameri- 
 can branches of English literature, makes us per- 
 ceive all the more sharply the fiat emptiness of 
 the English-speaking stage in the half-century 
 which stretches from 1825 to 1875. 
 
 There were many playhouses in Great Brit- 
 
 l vii ^ 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 ain and in the United States; and the attrac- 
 tiveness of the theater was as potent as ever. 
 There were many actors of varied accomplish- 
 ment and of indisputable distinction. But there 
 were no dramatists worthy of these actors and 
 responding to the need of these theaters. The 
 popular plays which filled the theaters were lack- 
 ing in literary merit; and the compositions which 
 the men of letters now and again cast into dra- 
 matic form were not really plays; they were only 
 dramatic poems , which failed to attract the broad 
 public whenever they chanced to get themselves 
 performed. In other words, the playwrights were 
 not poets and the poets were not playwrights. 
 There was a most unhappy divorce between the 
 drama and literature. 
 
 For this extraordinary condition there are 
 several explanations. First of all, the period of 
 the decadence of the drama was the period of the 
 expansion of the novel, due to the overwhelming 
 vogue of Scott. Until the sweeping success of the 
 fV aver ley novels, the prose-romance had been 
 considered inferior to the drama; and the earlier 
 novelists, Fielding more particularly , had ad- 
 ventured themselves first in the drama and had 
 turned to prose-fiction as a second choice. The 
 pecuniary rewards of play writing were larger 
 than those of novel-writing; and popular plays 
 
 C viii 3 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 were as widely read then as popular novels are 
 now.' But the novel is an easier form than the 
 play; it demands less technical dexterity; it is 
 less difficult to get before the public; and pub- 
 lishers of books are more in number and less arro- 
 gant in attitude than managers of theaters. 
 
 Secondly, the English dramatist was then 
 unexpectedly subjected to an unfair competition 
 with stolen goods, which instantly cut down the 
 pecuniary reward he had been accustomed to re- 
 ceive. Late in the eighteenth century, Kotzebue 
 composed numberless pieces in German, filled 
 with a perfervid emotionalism to which the Eng- 
 lish playgoer gladly responded. And early in 
 the nineteenth century, Scribe, and the crowd 
 of collaborators that encompassed him about, 
 composed numberless plays in French with in- 
 geniously contrived stories, as effective in one 
 language as in another. There was then no in- 
 ternational stage-right; and the dramas of any 
 German or French playwright could be trans- 
 lated and adapted and performed without the 
 permission of the original author and without 
 any payment to him. So long as the managers 
 of the British and American theaters could avail 
 themselves of these foreign plays, and as long as 
 audiences filled their theaters to witness the per- 
 formance of these imported pieces, there was no 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 desire and no necessity to pay a proper price to 
 the original dramatists of the English language. 
 
 As a result of these two conditions, the as- 
 piring young authors of our language who 
 might have become dramatists turned novelists. 
 Charles Reade,for example, was frank in de- 
 claring that he believed himself to be by native 
 gift a dramatist, and that he had been forced 
 into prose-fiction by bad laws — that is, by the 
 absence of international stage-right. And it 
 may be noted that the revival of our dramatic 
 literature in the past two-score years must be 
 ascribed in some measure to the waning vogue 
 of the novel, but very largely to the security due 
 to the proper protection now afforded by the 
 laws of every civilized country to the authors 
 of every other country. 
 
 This legal recognition of the rights of the 
 foreign dramatist has also had another far- 
 reaching effect. When his play is now produced 
 in another language, the author insists that it 
 shall be translated as literally as possible, with 
 as little mangling as may be; but fifty years 
 ago, when a play could be stolen, it was gen- 
 erally adapted and localized by a perverse 
 wrenching of its motives, a French story be- 
 ing arbitrarily transmogrified into an English 
 story. When adaptations of this sort were the 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 staple of the stage, the theater could not fail to 
 be a realm of fantastic unreality, and audiences 
 lost the taste for logic in either the action or the 
 characters. Here we can discover one explana- 
 tion for the artificiality which characterized the 
 English drama in the midyears of the nine- 
 teenth century, — an artificiality demoralizing 
 alike to authors and to audiences. Whenever an 
 unlikely event happened people were tempted to 
 say, "How like a play! "And in the pieces they 
 were in the habit of beholding in the theater 
 they were rarely tempted to say, "How like real 
 lifer' 
 
 ii 
 In the half-century from 1825 to 1875 there 
 was only one man of letters of an indisputable 
 prominence who won a position equally beyond 
 question as a playwright; this was Sir Edward 
 Bulwer-Lytton, afterward Lord Lytton. The 
 only other man of letters who succeeded in the 
 theater was Charles Reade; and but one of his 
 comedies held the stage for long, — "Masks and 
 Faces," written in collaboration with Tom Tay- 
 lor and promptly turned into the novel of "Peg 
 Woffington." Dickens had also a fleeting suc- 
 cess in his dramatization of "No Thorough- 
 fare/' a picturesque melodrama, written in col- 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 labor ation with Wilkie Collins. Certain of the 
 Victorian poets looked upon the stage-door as 
 the portal of the Temple of Fortune and as the 
 gate of the Hall of Fame; but even though they 
 might manage to get inside, no one of them suc- 
 ceeded in establishing himself in the theater. 
 
 Tennyson, for one, ardently aspired after 
 stage-success. His dramatic poems are often 
 classed as closet-dramas, that is, as poems in 
 dialogue and in dramatic form, not intended for 
 actual performance. But this classification is 
 unwarranted in Tennyson's case, since he did 
 intend all his plays to be performed, and since 
 he was intensely anxious that they should win 
 approval in the theater. Indeed, they were all 
 of them acted at one time or another; and yet 
 only one of them, "Becket," achieved even a 
 modest success, due in this instance to the adroit 
 revision of Sir Henry Irving. Browning, for 
 another, was ambitious for the laurels of the 
 dramatist. "Strafford" and "A Blot in the 
 'Scutcheon" were written with an eye single 
 to the stage, but without rewarding the poefs 
 effort. The obvious re a son for the failure of Ten- 
 nyson and Browning in the actual theater is 
 that they lacked the native gift of play-making , 
 and that they did not take the trouble to spy out 
 the secrets of the craft and to master its easy 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 mysteries, — as Victor Hugo had done in France 
 with startling success, although the French 
 lyrist had as little of the native gift of the born 
 playwright as either Tennyson or Browning. 
 
 That Bulwer-Lytton was inferior in poetic 
 power to Tennyson and Browning admits of no 
 question. But he was ready to serve an appren- 
 ticeship to the stage and to take infinite pains 
 to master its methods. As a result of this will- 
 ingness to accept the conditions of the theater 
 of his own time, Bulwer-Lytton achieved more 
 than once the triumph which was denied to 
 Tennyson and Browning. The letters now first 
 printed in the present volume disclose his desire 
 to avail himself of the expert aid of the fore- 
 most actor of the day. It is greatly to be re- 
 gretted that we have not also the letters which 
 Macready wrote to Bulwer-Lytton. To read 
 only that half of the correspondence which we 
 now have is a little like listening to a conversa- 
 tion by telephone; we can hear only one of the 
 speakers and we have to guess at what the other 
 has said. 
 
 It is true that Bulwer-Lytton s letters are 
 more significant and more interesting than Mac- 
 ready's could have been. They are more illu- 
 minative; and they reveal their author in an 
 unexpected light. He appears before us now no 
 
 C xiii 3 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 longer haughty , self -sufficient, and a little scorn- 
 ful. He is disclosed as a humble seeker for ex- 
 pert advice, modestly eager to profit by every hint 
 that Macready can give, and ready to rewrite, 
 to recast, to modify, or to amplify in accordance 
 with the actor s fruitful suggestions. By the aid 
 of these letters we are put in a position to see 
 that Macready was almost a collaborator in the 
 composition of "Richelieu" and "Money," just 
 as Coquelin was almost a collaborator in "Cy- 
 rano de Bergerac" and "Chantecler." 
 
 The dramatist has often written his plays 
 with his chief actor in mind. We are told that 
 this is true of Sophocles; we cannot doubt that 
 it is true of Shakspere, who provided Burbage 
 with a superb succession of tragic parts, while 
 he devised certain of his more humorous charac- 
 ters for Kemp; and we know that it is true of 
 Moliere, who kept his whole company in view 
 when he was composing a comedy, carefully ad- 
 justing every part to the player who was toper- 
 form it. There could be no more interesting epis- 
 tolary find than the discovery of the correspond- 
 ence between Moliere and La Grange — unless 
 it was that between Shakspere and Burbage. 
 
 Part of the deference which we see Bulwer- 
 Lytton paying to Macready may be due to the 
 exalted position which the actor held in his 
 
 C xiv 3 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 profession, and part may be due also to the fact 
 that the tragedian-manager was twelve years 
 older than the novelist-playwright. Macready 
 was born in 1793 and Bulwer-Lytton in 1805. 
 It was in 1838 and 1840 that they worked to- 
 gether in producing "Richelieu" and "Money" 
 The earlier play was designed specially to sup- 
 port the actor s arduous venture as manager of 
 Drury Lane; and the second was written for 
 him after he had relinquished management. It 
 was Bulwer-Lytton who presided at the banquet 
 given to Macready in 1851 when he retiredfrom 
 the active exercise of his profession, an occa- 
 sion made memorable by Tennyson s noble sonnet 
 of farewell. Although Bulwer-Lytton was the 
 younger of the two, he died three months before 
 Macready, both of them departing this life early 
 in 1873. 
 
 in 
 In the incomplete biography of the author writ- 
 ten by his son, the second Lord Lytton ( "Owen 
 Meredith"), we are told that he was early in- 
 terested in the drama. Tet he did not turn to the 
 stage until after he had made himself one of the 
 most popular of novelists. He wrote at least nine 
 plays in all. "The Duchess de la Valliere" was 
 produced in 1836, without success. Macready 
 C xv J 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 appeared as the hero, but according to the corre- 
 spondence that follows, he seems to have been 
 consulted only casually. The three plays com- 
 posed with the advice and consent of Macready 
 are "The Lady of Lyons" (1838), "Riche- 
 lieu" (1839), and "Money" ( 1840). Another 
 drama, "The Sea-Captain," produced without 
 success in 1839, was revived in 1868 as "The 
 Rightful Heir," and again without success. 
 "Not so Bad as Medium; or Many Sides to a 
 Character," was acted in 1851 by Dickens and 
 other notable amateurs. "Darnley" was per- 
 formed in 1 8 78 , after its author's death ; the un- 
 acted "Walpole; or Every Man has his Price" 
 was published in 1870, and "Junius; or, The 
 Household Gods," was acted in 1885. It may 
 be recorded that "Darnley" had the honour of 
 performance at the Burg Theater in Vienna, 
 and that both "Money" and "Richelieu" have 
 been presented in French versions in Paris. 
 
 The perusal of this catalogue makes clear 
 the fact that Bulwer-Lytton did not succeed as 
 a playwright except when he was working in 
 conjunction with Macready. The plays to which 
 Macready did not give his invaluable aid failed 
 and are forgotten , while three of the five pieces 
 which the actor helped to get into effective shape 
 succeeded at once when he produced them, and 
 I xvi ] 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 survived on the stage for more than half a cen- 
 tury after he had withdrawn from it. Indeed, 
 there is a certain significance in the fact that 
 "Money" was chosen for the special perform- 
 ance by all the leading actors of London before 
 the German Emperor in May, 1911, a little 
 before the coronation of George V . 
 
 Of all the Victorian authors, Bulwer-Lytton 
 was the most multifarious. He aspired to suc- 
 cess in almost every province of the domain of 
 literature. He came forward in turn as essay- 
 ist, historian, orator, translator, biographer, 
 lyrist, satirist, novelist, and dramatist. He was 
 as versatile as he was clever, and as ambitious 
 as he was ingenious. In scarcely any one of the 
 fields in which he exhibited his varied accom- 
 plishment did he fail altogether; yet it is only 
 as a novelist and as a dramatist that he suc- 
 ceeded in imposing himself upon his contempo- 
 raries. There are still spectators for his plays 
 and readers for his romances, although the dust 
 has long lain thick upon his poems and his sat- 
 ires, his essays and his histories. To point this 
 out is to indicate clearly what his real quality 
 was. He was a born story-teller. He had the gift 
 of narrative. He could present interesting char- 
 acters in interesting situations. The characters 
 might be forced or they might be flimsy; but the 
 
 C xvii 3 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 situations were ingenious, unexpected, enter- 
 taining, and effective. He sought to arouse the 
 emotions of surprise rather than the emotions 
 of recognition — to borrow Henry James's illu- 
 minating distinction. When we recall one of his 
 novels or one of his plays, we find ourselves re- 
 membering what his characters do rather than 
 what they are. 
 
 His plays have the same qualities that his 
 romances have. They reveal his abundant inven- 
 tion and his fertility in expedient. They are 
 manifestations of his essential gift of story- 
 telling, — a native endowment even more impor- 
 tant to the dramatist than to the novelist. A 
 novel can please the public, and it can survive 
 by sheer power of character-creation, supported 
 by only a minimum of story; but a play must 
 have action. In the study we may be amused by 
 what the characters are, but on the stage we 
 demand that they do something, that they desire 
 something intensely, and that they present be- 
 fore us the conflict of contending volitions. They 
 must know what they want, and they must strive 
 to attain it. Not a few of the dramatists have 
 been primarily and essentially story-tellers on 
 the stage. It is by their story-telling faculty , for 
 example, rather than by their poetry or their 
 psychology, that Beaumont and Fletcher won 
 
 C xviii 3 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 the favour of the Jacobean playgoers. This 
 necessity for a story sufficient to arouse and to 
 sustain the interest of the spectators has been 
 recognized by all the analysts of dramatic art, 
 beginning with Aristotle, who was emphatic in 
 declaring the supreme importance of the action 
 itself. 
 
 But story alone is not sufficient in the theater, 
 unless it is so treated as to constitute a plot 
 appealing to the playgoers by its progressive ac- 
 tion, by its succession of situations, by its com- 
 bination of contrast and climax. And it is here 
 that Macready was able to afford invaluable 
 assistance to Bulwer-Lytton. The novelist con- 
 ceived his story, and the actor aided him to sup- 
 port it by a plot likely to move the massed spec- 
 tators in the theater. The difference between a 
 good story, as invented by a novelist, and a good 
 plot, fit for the purpose of the dramatist, can 
 be seized at once by the comparison of the origi- 
 nal suggestion of "Richelieu," as outlined by 
 Bulwer-Lytton in a letter, with the plot of the 
 play which Macready finally produced. The 
 author obviously intended the part of Morillac, 
 afterward called De Mauprat,for Macready 
 himself; that is to say, he did not see that Riche- 
 lieu had to be the central figure in the piece. Tet 
 it is plain enough that "Richelieu" as a play 
 I xix ] 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 exists only for the sake of Richelieu as a part. 
 In its original form the drama might have been 
 as ineffective as " The Duchess de la Valliere," 
 little more than a romanticist play of love and 
 adventure. By bringing to the front the figure 
 of the wily cardinal, and by focussing attention 
 upon him, the piece took on at once a larger as- 
 pect and gained an ampler historic background. 
 It was lifted up to a loftier significance, audit 
 attained almost to the boldness of a tragedy of 
 statecraft. 
 
 Thanks to Macready's technical advice, 
 "Richelieu" became what it is; and in conse- 
 quence of the actor's assistance " The Lady of 
 Lyons " and "Money" were equally successful. 
 This success was not fleeting; and the three 
 plays kept the stage for threescore years and 
 ten. It is true that they no longer please as they 
 did at first. The taste of the play going public 
 has changed. The realistic movement has tri- 
 umphed, and the laurels of the romanticists are 
 sadly faded. Nowadays we ask for more sin- 
 cerity than Bulwer-Lytton has provided, for 
 more veracity, for more actuality. 
 
 When we read his plays today in the study, 
 or when we see them acted on the stage, we are 
 amused by their artificiality, and we are an- 
 noyed by their extravagance. We cannot fail to 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 perceive now that their heroes and their heroines 
 are not living men and women, but only effective 
 parts for actors and actresses; they seem to us 
 stagy and tricky . We Jail to find the accent of 
 real passion in their utterances, and the expres- 
 sion of their emotions sometimes strikes us as 
 perilously close to inflated rodomontade and to 
 flamboyant bombast. Their prettiest speeches no 
 longer ring true; they are cracked and false; 
 they are rhetoric rather than poetry. We have 
 advanced to a point where we discover more vi- 
 tality, more reality, more poetry [in the larger 
 sense of the word) in a single act of " The Sec- 
 ond Mrs. Tanqueray, y> of "Candida," or of 
 "What Every Woman Knows," than we can 
 now find in all of Bulwer-Lyttons dramas 
 heaped together. None the less ought we to be 
 able also to see that " The Lady of Lyons" and 
 "Richelieu" and "Money" are truly representa- 
 tive of the best that the drama of our language 
 had to show in the middle years of the nineteenth 
 century. 
 
 Brander Matthews. 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 TO MACREADY 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 TO MACREADY 
 
 Albany, 
 Monday, 
 
 March, 1836. 
 
 My dear Sir: 
 
 On receiving your kind letter, I sent for M r 
 Morris, & after some conversation he agreed 
 to write to you. He has this day called on me, 
 much disturbed by not receiving an answer. 
 After as frank a communication as I could 
 obtain with him, he seemed to imagine that 
 the salary of 30^ per week contingent on the 
 success of the play was the utmost he could 
 afford — calculating on the probability of play- 
 ing the piece [Ta Valliere] every night. I make 
 his engagement with you a sine qua non; that 
 settled, my own terms I shall conclude to his 
 satisfaction. Now I know well that this salary 
 is not adequate to your merits or celebrity & I 
 have only therefore to request that on no con- 
 sideration of personal courtesy or kindness to 
 
 I s 3 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 me, you will suffer it to influence you to the 
 prejudice of other arrangements & the detri- 
 ment of your own interests. — Perhaps you will 
 be kind eno' to relieve the agitated mind of M r 
 Morris by a Yes or No — as little influenced as 
 possible by your favourable inclinations toward 
 myself. 
 
 Hoping to hear from you au plutot, believe 
 me 
 
 My dear Sir 
 
 Very faith 7 Yours 
 
 E. L. Bulwer. 
 
 ii 
 
 Knebworth Park, 
 Stevenage, Herts. 
 March 25, 1836. 
 
 My dear Sir : 
 
 I cannot say how obliged & touched I am by 
 your kindness, nor how completely I under- 
 stand the liberal and delicate spirit which per- 
 vades it. 
 
 I conclude now that the affair is settled, 
 as M. r Morris himself wishes the Play £La 
 
 [4] 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 ValliereJ to appear the ist of June. Other de- 
 tails you can settle with him. 
 
 Perhaps you will, by & by, inform me how 
 long your other and more valuable engage- 
 ments will allow you to remain at the Hay- 
 market, should the play succeed. 
 
 If sufficiently encouraged by results, I shall 
 seriously think of Dramatic composition & hope 
 in a grander subject & the exhibition of loftier 
 passions to embody a character more suited to 
 your powers than Bragelone. I suppose in the 
 casting of the Parts, Louis will fall to F. Vin- 
 ing, & I think, with training, Webster might 
 refine himself into at least the best Lauzun we 
 could get. 
 
 Very sincerely & gratefully yrs 
 
 E. L. Bulwer. 
 
 March 26, 1836. 
 Knebworth Park, 
 Stevenage, Herts. 
 
 Ill 
 
 May, 1836. 
 
 My dear Sir : 
 
 It is not for me certainly to interfere with your 
 
 C53 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 arrangements, which I am sure are for the best. 
 But I think it perhaps as well to say that I 
 have met with 5 families who, balancing what 
 play to go to, were decided by the Domino 
 Noir — agst their first inclination towards Cov. 
 Garden. 2 of these were for next Wednesday. 
 — I cannot but think that despite the abridge- 
 ment, the said Domino will be injurious. 
 
 I see you have a play of Talfourd's in prep- 
 aration, & for this (whatever the success of 
 mine [Xa Valliere^] — were I to give my name 
 it would necessarily curtail and interfere with 
 its run ) I think the announcement would be 
 now useless. 
 
 Y rs truly 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 IV 
 
 Knebworth Park, 
 Stevenage, Herts. 
 Nov!: 6, 1836. 
 
 My dear Sir: 
 
 I enclose you the Epilogue I propose for Far- 
 ren if he take Montespan [Ta Valliere]. I think 
 it has some points that may be successful on the 
 
 CO 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 stage. — There are two allusions of which I am 
 doubtful: one the two lines in which Spring 
 Rice is mentioned by name, the other about the 
 Duke of Brunswick & the Balloon. I mean as 
 to the taste of them. 
 
 Whenever you write about the rehearsals, 
 you can let me know your opinion on these 
 matters. 
 
 I hope the Epilogue may go toward 
 strengthening the part of Montespan & there- 
 fore hasten to send it. 
 
 I have also written a prologue, but it is a 
 very commonplace affair. I thought it might 
 do well just to allude to the copyright Law, 
 but I have not done it neatly in the prologue, 
 & I shall keep the creature by me for a few 
 days to see whether he will grow up any hand- 
 somer — which ugly babies sometimes do. 
 
 I heartily wish you could have given my 
 Mother & myself the pleasure of your com- 
 pany here for a day or two. But I suppose 
 just at this time it would be impossible. 
 
 I was extremely gratified by your kind note, 
 which was most encouraging. 
 
 Ever yr obliged 
 
 E. L. Bulwer. 
 
 P. S. When you write please to return the 
 Epilogue with any suggestions. 
 
 C7n 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 Knebworth, 
 
 Stevenage, Herts. 
 Nov. 7, 1836. 
 
 My dear Sir: 
 
 1 send you something which I propose as a sub- 
 stitute for the " horns. "I think the idea is comic 
 without the farce of the Scene [Xa Valliere^] as 
 it now stands. But I am a little in doubt whether 
 it may not be un peu tropfort to make Lauzun 
 pay his envoy to Montespan's wife with her 
 Husband's jewels — I mean not tropfort in it- 
 self, but trop fort for the starch of the audi- 
 ence. Pray consider and let me know: if it does 
 — the Old Lady must be drest with due re- 
 gard to the comic. Will you also see if there are 
 any five or six lines that could be omitted, as 
 it is a little too long to supply the place of the 
 
 2 pages to be cancelled in the printed copies. If 
 nothing can be well omitted, it does not signify 
 much, as in that case I must cancel 5 pages 
 instead of 2, to gain the blank part of the last 
 page of the Act. 
 
 Please when you have read, to return it — 
 with any suggestions. I will then return you 
 a copy for the Stage and have it printed in the 
 
 CO 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 meanwhile. Excuse all this trouble. — The idea 
 is amusing enough, but I fear I have not done 
 as much as I might with the Execution. 
 
 Ever yrs truly obliged & faithfully 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 VI 
 
 Knebworth, 
 Nov!; 8, 1836. 
 
 My dear Sir: 
 
 I have again to trouble you. Having received, 
 today, a letter from Farren which seems likely 
 to disconcert all our arrangements. — In it he 
 says that on seeing the play [Xa Valliere] he 
 never could have had the slightest hesitation 
 as to the part he should fix on — viz; de Lau- 
 zun. He then proceeds to dwell on what he con- 
 ceives the spirit of the character, & concludes 
 with saying: "it is the only part in the play I 
 could act with justice to you — or your humble 
 servant W m Farren \" — I have only one con- 
 solation in thinking, from the bearing of his 
 letter, that even without my most unlucky & 
 rash note, he would have equally pitched upon 
 Lauzun. 
 
 CO 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 What is to be done? — can I be of any use 
 writing, & in that case what shall I say, what 
 points insist upon? — I hope it will be managed. 
 But probably ere this you have heard Far- 
 ren's choice, tho' I hasten to apprise you of the 
 contretemps. 
 
 Y rs most truly 
 
 E. L. Bulwer. 
 
 VII 
 
 Knebworth, 
 
 Stevenage, Herts. 
 Nov. 9, 1836. 
 
 My dear Sir: 
 
 By the enclosed notes you will see I do all 
 in my power to correct the first faux pas of 
 writing to Farren, & I have as earnestly, yet 
 as civilly, as I can, pressed on him the part of 
 Montespan. I have adopted your hint as to the 
 threat of withdrawing La Valliere. If you like 
 the notes, please to seal & send them. You 
 can give Osbaldiston the one for him when 
 you see him. Farren's can go by the two penny 
 Post. For the rest I leave a carte blanche 
 entirely in your hands. Whatever you do — 
 
 c 10 ^ 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 either in omitting Farren altogether, or even, 
 if you judge right, withdrawing the Play ( tho' 
 that would be awkward) — will be entirely 
 approved by me. — If my presence is neces- 
 sary in town, I can come on two days' notice. 
 But I think my note to Farren will do at least 
 as much as seeing him would do. — Could the 
 matter be compromised by Farren's taking 
 the part of Montespan at first & Lauzun here- 
 after ? This as you like. Or I would promise 
 — if LaValliere succeed — to write him a thor- 
 oughly effective & prominent part in some fu- 
 ture play. In that I will do all I can to smooth 
 the obstacles. I agree with you that Farren 
 could not fight with Bragelone,& thought that 
 must be altered if he took that part. Fighting 
 with Farren would be burlesque. The scene 
 with LaValliere he might do better. — But we 
 had better dismiss all thought of the possibil- 
 ity of his doing anything but Montespan, tho' 
 without piquing his self love by considering 
 him unfit for Lauzun, & putting him in as good 
 humour as we can. 
 
 Y rs ever 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 P.S. Thanks to your kindness in saving me 
 already from all the annoyances I have been 
 brought to consider ignominious with acting 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 a play. I cannot — despite Farren — agree yet 
 with Smollet or Le Sage. 
 
 VIII 
 
 Dec. 1836. 
 
 My dear Sir: 
 
 I send you a copy of La Valliere. Is there any 
 thing you would object to in the advertise- 
 ment that follows the preface? I do not let it 
 be printed till you have seen it. As Bunn gives 
 out, I hear, that he refused the play, I thought 
 something of the kind necessary. But I am not 
 quite pleased with the thing I have drawn 
 up. I have managed with the Publishers, to 
 print La Valliere, & Cromwell when altered 
 separately, & am thus enabled, without much 
 loss, to keep back the Publication of La V. till 
 the day of performance provided it be within 
 3 weeks or a month at farthest. 
 
 I have now only to repeat the thrice-told 
 tale of my thanks for all your kindness. — I 
 only wish I had been an Achilles that you 
 had brought to the War. 
 
 Y r f Ever E. L. B. 
 
 C 1* 3 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 I expect a stormy party ag? me the first night. 
 
 P. S. If you could suggest any verbal altera- 
 tions in the last scene, they can be done. I am 
 just leaving town, but a line to the Albany will 
 find me. 
 
 Shall any copies be sent to the reviews the 
 week before performance, or shall all be kept 
 back ? 
 
 IX 
 
 1836. 
 
 My dear Sir: 
 
 I send you the prologue & epilogue [Xa Val- 
 liere]. The printers are waiting eagerly for 
 them; & therefore if your better tact can sug- 
 gest any verbal amendments, I will have them 
 effect d now; on hearing from you. Can you say 
 whether I may depend on the play being pro- 
 duced Wednesday because of alio wing the pub- 
 lishers to complete their arrangements ? When 
 are the rehearsals ? 
 
 Yours most truly, 
 
 E. L.B. 
 
 C is 3 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 The copies for the stage will be sent to M' Os- 
 baldiston to-morrow Evening & I shall send 
 you one also — the vanished of Montespan be- 
 ing altered for the ruptured, &c. I have rewrit- 
 ten the Prologue & think it may do. 
 
 Albany, 
 
 Tuesday, 
 
 1836. 
 
 My dear Sir: 
 
 I have received your kind note. What you pro- 
 pose in the second act is already done. What 
 you propose in the fourth I am about. 
 
 Now for the first Act. The intermediate 
 Scene required to break the suddenness of 
 the transition ( which suddenness I acknow- 
 ledge) is attended with great difficulty — not 
 to incur the same suddenness. Two scenes 
 only occur to me, one between Bragelone & 
 the mother — or one between Bragelone & the 
 King — if the last, Bragelone must not disclose 
 his love, which is incompatible with the sub- 
 sequent conduct of the Play. Should neither 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 of these please you, can you suggest any domi- 
 nant emotion or passion to call forth? I do 
 not see my way clearly to strong effect — I 
 don't know, in fact, what to make the talkers 
 say ! any hints would be very acceptable. Now 
 to the grand difficulty of Act 5. After much 
 consideration I am not able to persuade my- 
 self to the introduction of the King in the scene 
 of the taking the Veil. Not that I care about 
 the Historical truth. But I do not think the 
 more sacred Law of the Probabilities would 
 allow the evident breach of the Probable — 
 in Louis delaying so long his interference — 
 knowing by the Presence of the Queen & 
 publicity of the occasion — the very day of the 
 ceremony. Either he would come before, or 
 I must prepare the way for him by painting 
 his struggles in a separate Scene which the 
 limits of the play w? not allow. I fear too 
 that the audience could not get over the Pub- 
 licity of so great an assemblage & so solemn 
 a scene, to an interview that should be so 
 private. Louis would naturally ask ( if he did 
 come ) to see her in another room. — Moreover, 
 the effect is taken from the dread repose of 
 the Ceremony, & perhaps — if Louis's grief 
 were powerfully painted — the sympathies 
 would be diverted to him from Bragelone & 
 
 c 153 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 La V. Should we therefore defer his parting 
 
 interview with LaV., we might do it thus: 
 
 Scene ist as you suggest — Montespan, Lau- 
 
 zun, &c. 
 
 Scene 2. Chateau. Bragelone & La Valliere & 
 
 his exclamations over La V. when insensible. 
 
 Then we might introduce the King seeking 
 
 her at the Chateau. 
 
 The next scene — the exterior of the Convent, 
 
 Lauzun & Montespan. 
 
 Last scene as it stands. 
 
 Or else 
 Instead of seeking her at the Chateau there 
 might be a scene before she takes the veil 
 — of a cell in the Convent — andthe King com- 
 ing to her — followed by Scene the last. I have 
 thought of another alteration or addition that 
 might doubtless be affecting in itself — as it 
 would fall in your hands. But I fear it would 
 take from the sterner points of Bragelone's 
 character, and mar the harmony of the De- 
 nouement. However, I mention it at present 
 merely as a suggestion — Between the last 
 interview of Bragelone & La Valliere and the 
 Convent scene — Suppose that we introduce 
 one of a burial ground in view of the convent 
 & a gravedigger employed at a grave. — 
 Bragelone — ill and declining — purchases that 
 
 C 16 3 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 grave which is directly in front of the Convent 
 windows. — Then, instead of ending the Play 
 with the Present Ceremonial, to follow that 
 scene by one of Bragelone's Death by this 
 grave — as if he had only survived to fulfill 
 a duty, & had no further business with life. 
 By curtailments as to the Queen & King 
 
 XI 
 
 Albany, 
 
 Jan. 9, 1837, 
 Sunday. 
 
 My dear Sir : 
 
 There is one point in the last words you say 
 in La Valliere which have been so generally 
 mentioned to me, that I venture to name it to 
 you. The two words — " Heaven bless her" — 
 might be rendered more striking by the least 
 alteration that might convey a moral or clap- 
 trap to the audience, & I suggest, therefore, 
 that it should run thus : 
 
 Madame La Valliere as at present : "Yes." 
 
 The action \ Bragelone : "Accept O 
 
 signifying the I Heaven Earth's worthiest offering — a 
 blessing J repentant heart ! " 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 This, which is only the addition of one line, 
 will I think make a more complete and satis- 
 factory impression on the whole audience and 
 seem "to point the moral." Having made this 
 suggestion, I leave its consideration to you. 
 
 In your new scene occur these words, 
 "Heaven is less merciful" — suppose we get 
 rid of the additional Heaven by substituting 
 "Fate." 
 
 Forster tells me the Sunday papers were 
 more favourable than could be expected — that 
 the"Observer,"commentingon the Saturday's 
 performance, even augurs a long run. 
 
 Ever most gratefully y? 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 XII 
 
 Albany, 
 
 Jany 10, 1837. 
 
 My dear Sir: 
 
 In the second Act instead of "Lord of Hosts" 
 
 perhaps it will be better to say, "Merciful 
 
 Heavens ;" it makes the same metre & is more 
 
 safe. 
 
 C 18 3 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 To-night, I fancy & am given to understand, 
 will decide whether La Valliere is to be with- 
 drawn at once or not. In the former case allow 
 me to say that my deepest regret will be that 
 it did not do more justice both to your wonder- 
 ful acting & to your most friendly services. 
 For the rest I must say with the murdered 
 Lauzun: 
 
 "My future calls me back 
 To rarer schemes" — 
 
 or content myself with parodying the lines of 
 a greater man : 
 
 "A double sorrow waits my luckless lot, 
 My play is damned — and William Farren not." 
 
 Tout a vous 
 
 E. L. Bulwer. 
 
 XIII 
 
 March 25, 1837. 
 
 My dear Sir: 
 
 I trust that you are quite recovered from your 
 long & severe indisposition. I heard yesterday 
 from our friend d'Aguilar, who speaks in rap- 
 ture of your acting in Bragelone & who was 
 
 c 193 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 also pleased with the play. I wish to know 
 whether there is any chance of its again ap- 
 pearing at Cov. Garden. I hear from Forster 
 that there is some hitch as toFarren& Vanden- 
 hoff. Now that the neck of the run is broken, 
 I do not think their loss very serious. I leave 
 this, however, to your judgement. For my own 
 part I am very little curious about it. I have 
 written to M. r Osbaldistone a short line merely 
 to inquire his intention. 
 
 Y r . s most truly 
 
 E. L. Bulwer. 
 
 XIV 
 
 Albany, 
 
 April 7, 1837. 
 
 I am extremely obliged to you, my dear Sir, 
 for your kind letter, which I delayed answer- 
 ing in the hope that I might hear from M. r Os- 
 baldistone, announcing a definite decision re- 
 pecting La Valliere. I have not yet done so, but 
 conclude he declines it. I need not say how 
 much I have felt your kindness throughout — 
 
 1 20 ^ 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 and my regret now is that I was unable to se- 
 cure to your genius a longer triumph — greater 
 for the time it could not be. I have heard many 
 Opinions of La Valliere — I never heard but 
 one of M. r Macready's Bragelone. 
 
 Y r . s Ever most truly grateful 
 
 E. L. Bulwer. 
 
 XV 
 
 [Private and Confidential^ 
 
 8 Charles St., 
 Berkeley Sq., 
 1837. 
 
 My dear Sir: 
 
 Tell me frankly — Do you really wish for the 
 hazardous experiment of my assistance? I 
 admire so much the stand you are making & 
 I sympathize so much with your struggle, that 
 if I really thought I could be of service, you 
 might command me at once. I have been con- 
 sidering deeply the elements of Dramatic art, 
 and I think I see the secret. But I may be mis- 
 taken — nothing more probable. 
 
 However, if you sincerely and thoroughly 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 desire it, I will make the experiment. — And 
 submit it to you — Act by Act — as it proceeds. 
 I am aware that in this case, to be of use to 
 you I ought to go to work soon. If you wish 
 it, I will name the time — as soon after Xmas 
 as you like when you wish the Ms. and you 
 shall have it. But before you answer let me 
 impress this upon you. Waive all compliment 
 — if you think the chances are that I should 
 not succeed, it is better for you not to try and 
 much better for me. I must suspend undertak- 
 ings of moment and value — which I would 
 delightedly do to serve you and the Drama — 
 but not, I own, merely from restless curiosity, 
 or the speculations of that tempting adven- 
 turer — Vanity. Secondly, are you sure that 
 you shall continue your enterprise beyond 
 Xmas ? Is it not too severe a task ? Were you 
 not Manager, I would not be a second time 
 Dramatist. If these questions should — as I pre- 
 dict — be not answered quite favourably — for 
 I know I may trust to your candour — accept 
 the will for the Deed. But if otherwise, tell 
 me which you prefer, Comedy or Tragedy. I 
 think the former in itself a safer speculation, 
 but where are the Actors? — Whatever sub- 
 ject I select, you may depend on domestic in- 
 terest and determined concentration up to the 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 close. This letter, as the attempt to which it 
 refers would be — is strictly confidential. 
 Wishing you all success — believe me, 
 Most truly y r . s 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 Don't answer this till you are quite at leisure. 
 
 XVI 
 
 February, 1838. 
 
 My dear Sir: 
 
 You will excuse my observing that it may be 
 well to leave M? Clifford the lighter points I 
 added to the part — unless she prove unequal 
 to them in rehearsal. I do not think they re- 
 quire much skill in delivery & they round and 
 polish the composition £Lady of Lyons]. 
 
 Another thing — can you give Miss Faucit 
 any instructions to speak more clearly, to let 
 her voice travel out of her throat? For she was 
 perfectly inaudible in Cordelia. It is a great 
 
 pity. 
 
 Pardon this. 
 
 Y r . s truly , T „ 
 
 J E. L. B. 
 
 C *3 ] 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 P. S. I shall probably hear from you on Friday, 
 the result of what I cannot see. 
 
 XVII 
 
 Monday, 
 
 March, 1838. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 With pleasure on Saturday at six. — Just as 
 you please about Forster. I have no ideas 
 to communicate with regard to myself. But 
 wished to suggest to you an opera, that you 
 might make a National hit. 
 
 In haste, 
 
 y: 
 
 E. L.B. 
 
 XVIII 
 
 Charles St., 
 
 March 22, 1838. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I am fully sensible of the generosity of your 
 
 C 24 3 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 proposal £to make a payment on account of 
 Lady of Lyons J. But our compact was not of an 
 ordinary nature, and on consideration, you will 
 see that it is impossible to lower it into a pe- 
 cuniary arrangement. It was a compact based 
 upon feelings worthy of the Art, which in our 
 several lines we desired to serve — let me add 
 that it was worthy of ourselves. On your side 
 was a zeal for my reputation — on mine a sym- 
 pathy with your cause. Can the feelings each 
 of us experienced in success, ever be reduced 
 into a matter of pounds & shillings? 
 
 I do not return this money to you — you, per- 
 sonally, have no concern with it — I return it 
 as a Contribution toward the Expences of an 
 attempt, in which as an English author and a 
 lover of Art I have as deep an interest as 
 yourself, & the risks of which never ought to 
 have fallen upon one individual. 
 
 Do not imagine me guilty of the arrogant 
 vanity of supposing that I confer a favour. I 
 know that my effort has been of no pecuniary 
 profit to yourself. The most it could do was, 
 perhaps, to lighten losses at a period when luck 
 ran strong against us. And fear not that you 
 have not already overrequited me. The bal- 
 ance between us leaves the obligation on my 
 side. I gave you but a fortnight, of time I 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 should not have otherwise employed to advan- 
 tage — you gave me a victory over enemies, 
 and restored me to confidence in myself. — 
 Neither money nor any other kind of remunera- 
 tion which money purchases, can I accept — or 
 you propose. My guerdon is the boast to have 
 served, not as a Mercenary but a volunteer, 
 in an enterprise that will long be memorable 
 in the Literary History of my time. I will not 
 sell my Waterloo Medal. 
 
 I trust & I believe that you will triumph 
 eventually over all obstacles, & that at the end 
 of this Season, you will feel encouraged to a 
 new Campaign in which the hazards may be 
 less and the rewards greater. If then, either on 
 your own part, or that of others, you ask me 
 again to tempt Gods & Columns, I will not 
 scruple to talk to you of Business. But now my 
 confidence in the Nature of your own pride 
 convinces me that you will sympathize with 
 mine. 
 
 Believe me, my dear Macready, 
 Y' sincere well-wisher & obliged friend 
 
 E. L. Bulwer. 
 
 C 26 3 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 XIX 
 
 March 28, 1838. 
 
 Many thanks to you, my dear Macready, for 
 your most kind & generous letter — which 
 pays me a thousandfold for all my good in- 
 tentions, & small exertions. 
 
 May I ask you to direct & send by the earli- 
 est 2 d . post the inclosed letter to Miss Marti- 
 neau, whose address I know not — it touches 
 the Copyright Bill. 
 
 Ever, my dear Macready, 
 Your sincere admirer & cordial friend 
 
 E. L. Bulwer. 
 
 xx 
 
 March 31, 1838. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I came to town purposely to attend the dinner 
 yesterday — but was so poorly w 7 ith the dis- 
 abling complaint in my head, that I was quite 
 unequal to going. 
 
 I postponed sending an excuse thinking to 
 
 c 27 3 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 the last moment, I might get better, which I 
 sometimes do suddenly. 
 
 But all in vain & I am at last reluctantly 
 obliged to remain at home. 
 
 I am very sorry to hear you, too, have been 
 unwell, but trust you are now recovered, & 
 that your dinner went off well. 
 
 I shall be happy whenever it suits you, to 
 consult as to the best mode of meeting the 
 present dramatic difficulties. 
 
 I have long been of opinion that a subscrip- 
 tion Company might be got up to start a The- 
 atre & elect you Manager — & if you think 
 this, should be glad to cooperate in starting 
 it — or if there is anything else in which I 
 can practically assist in restoring your career, 
 pray command me. 
 
 Y T . Evr 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 XXI 
 
 Note : This letter, preserved in the Dyce and Fors- 
 ter Libraries, was printed by J. Fitzgerald Molloy 
 in his essay on Lord Lytton's Plays in his book, 
 Famous Plays, ' ' published by Ward and Downey. 
 London, 1886. 
 
 E>8l 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 It is reprinted here to complete the story of 
 ' 'Richelieu." 
 
 September, 1838. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I have thought of a subject. The story full of 
 incident and interest. It is to this effect. In the 
 time of Louis XIII. The Chevalier de Maril- 
 lac is the wittiest and bravest gentleman, cele- 
 brated for his extravagant valour and his en- 
 thusiasm for enjoyment; but in his most mirth- 
 ful moments a dark cloud comes over him at 
 one name — the name of Richelieu. He con- 
 fides to his friend Cinq Mars the reason, viz., 
 he had once entered into a conspiracy against 
 Richelieu; Richelieu discovered and sent for 
 him. "Chevalier de Marillac/' said he, "I do 
 not desire to shed your blood on the scaffold, 
 but you must die. Here is a command on the 
 frontier; fall in battle/' He went to the post, 
 but met glory, and not death. Richelieu, re- 
 viewing the troops, found him still living, and 
 said," Remember, the sword isover your head. 
 I take your parole to appear before me once 
 a quarter. You can still find death. I will give 
 you time for it." Hence his extravagant val- 
 our ; hence his desire to make the most of life. 
 
 c 29 3 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 While making this confidence to Cinq Mars, 
 he is sent for by Richelieu. He goes as to death. 
 Richelieu receives him sternly, reminds him of 
 his long delay, upbraids him for his profligate 
 life, etc. Marillac answers with mingled wit 
 and nobleness ; and at last, instead of senten- 
 cing him to death, Richelieu tells him that 
 he has qualities that make him wish to attach 
 him to himself, and that he will marry him to 
 a girl with a great dowry, and give him high 
 office at court. He must marry directly. Maril- 
 lac goes out enchanted. 
 
 Now, Richelieu's motive is this : Louis XIII 
 has fallen in love with this girl, Louise de la 
 Porte, and wishes to make her his mistress. 
 All the King's mistresses have hitherto op- 
 posed Richelieu. He is resolved that the King 
 shall have no more. He will have no rival with 
 the King. He therefore resolves to marry her 
 to Marillac, whose life is in his power, whom 
 he can hold in command, whom he believes 
 to be too noble to suffer the adulterous con- 
 nection. 
 
 Marillac is then introduced, just married, 
 with high appointments and large dowry, the 
 girl beautiful, when, on his wedding-day, Cinq 
 Mars tells him that the King loves his wife. His 
 rage and despair — conceives himself duped. 
 
 r so 3 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 Scene with the girl, in which he recoils from 
 her. Suddenly three knocks at the door. He 
 is sent for by the King, and despatched to a 
 distance; the bride, not wived, is summoned 
 to court. 
 
 Marillac, all pride and wrath, and casting 
 all upon Richelieu, agrees to conspire against 
 the Cardinal's life. The fortress where Riche- 
 lieu lodges is, garrisoned with the friends of 
 the conspirators. Just as he has agreed, he re- 
 ceived an anonymous letter telling him that 
 his wife is at Chantilly ; that she will sleep in 
 the chamber of the Montmorencies ; that Louis 
 means to enter the room that night; that if 
 he wishes to guard his honour, he can enter 
 the palace by a secret passage which opens in 
 a picture of Hugo de Montmorenci, the last 
 duke, who was beheaded by Louis ( an act for 
 which the King always felt remorse). This 
 Montmorenci had been the most intimate friend 
 of Marillac, and had left him his armour as 
 a present. A thought strikes Marillac, and he 
 goes off the stage. 
 
 Louise alone in this vast room — the picture 
 of Montmorenci in complete armour — a bed 
 at the end. She complains of her husband's 
 want of love, and laments her hard fate — dis- 
 misses her women. The King enters and locks 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 the doors ; after supplication and resistance on 
 her part, he advances to seize her, when from 
 Montmorenci's picture comes aery of "Hold! " 
 and the form descends from the panel and 
 interposes. The King, horror-stricken and 
 superstitious, flies; Louise faints. The form is 
 Marillac. While she is still insensible, the clock 
 strikes; it is the hour he is to meet the con- 
 spirators. He summons her women, and leaves 
 her. 
 
 Richelieu alone at night when Marillac en- 
 ters to him, tells him his life is in his power, 
 upbraids him for his disgrace, etc. Richelieu 
 informs him that he has married him to Louise 
 to prevent her dishonour, that he had sent the 
 anonymous letter, etc., and converts Marillac 
 into gratitude. But what is to be done? The 
 conspirators have filled the fortress. They 
 (Richelieu and Marillac) retire into another 
 room, and presently the conspirators enter the 
 one they have left, and Marillac joins them 
 and tells them the Cardinal is dead, that he 
 will see to the funeral, etc., and they had bet- 
 ter go at once and announce it to the King, 
 and that there are no marks of violence, that 
 it seems like a fit (being suffocation). 
 
 C 32 ] 
 
TO MACREADY 
 SCENE IN THE STREETS OF PARIS 
 
 The King, who had always feared and hated 
 Richelieu, hears the news and is at first re- 
 joiced, the courtiers delighted, Paris in a jubi- 
 lee. But suddenly comes news of commotion, 
 riot; messengers announce the defeat of the 
 armies; the Spaniards have crossed the fron- 
 tiers, his general, de Feuguieres, is slain ; hub- 
 bub and uproar without, with cries of " Hur- 
 rah ! the old Cardinal is dead," etc., when there 
 is a counter cry of "The Cardinal, the Car- 
 dinal ! " and a band of soldiers appear, followed 
 by Richelieu himself in complete armour. At 
 this sight the confusion, the amaze, etc., the 
 mob changes humours, and there is a cry of 
 "Long live the great Cardinal!" 
 
 SCENE, THE KING'S CHAMBER 
 
 The King, enraged at the trick played on him, 
 and at his having committed himself to joy at 
 the Cardinal's death, hears that de Marillac 
 had announced the false report, orders him to 
 the Bastille, tells the Count de Charost to for- 
 bid Richelieu the Louvre, and declares hence- 
 forth he will reign alone. Joy of the anti-Car- 
 dinalists, when the great doors are thrown 
 open, and Richelieu, pale, suffering, sick, in his 
 Cardinal's robes, leaning on his pages, enters 
 
 C 33 J 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 and calls on Charost ( the very man who is to 
 forbid his entrance ) to give him his arm, which 
 Charost tremblingly does before the eyes of 
 the King. Richelieu and the King alone. Riche- 
 lieu says he has come to tender his resignation, 
 the King accepts it, and Richelieu summons 
 six secretaries groaning beneath sacks of pub- 
 lic papers, all demanding immediate attention. 
 Richelieu retires to a distance, and appears al- 
 most dying . The King desperately betakes him- 
 self to the papers; his perplexity, bewilder- 
 ment, and horror at the dangers round him. At 
 last he summons the Cardinal to his side and 
 implores him to resume the office. The Car- 
 dinal, with great seeming reluctance, says he 
 only will on one condition — complete power 
 over foes and friends ; Louis must never again 
 interfere with public business. He then makes 
 him sign various papers, and when all is done 
 the old man throws off the dying state, rises 
 with lion-like energy : " France is again France 
 — to the frontiers. I lead the armies/' etc. 
 ( a splendid burst ) . Louis, half enfeebled, half 
 ashamed, retires. Richelieu alone, gives vari- 
 ous papers to the secretaries, and summons 
 Marillac and his wife. He asks her if she has 
 been happy, she says " No/' thinking her hus- 
 band hates her; put the same question to 
 
 C 34 J 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 Marillac, who, thinking she wishes to be sepa- 
 rated, says the same. He then tells them as 
 the marriage has not been fulfilled, they can 
 be divorced. They wofully agree, when turn- 
 ing to Marillac he shows him the King's or- 
 der that he should go to the Bastille, and then 
 adds that in favour of his service in saving his 
 (Richelieu's) life, he has the power to soften 
 his sentence, but he must lose his offices at 
 court and go into exile. On hearing this Louise 
 turns around, her love breaks out — she will 
 go with him into banishment, and the recon- 
 ciliation is complete. Richelieu , regarding them , 
 then adds: "Your sentence remains the same 
 — we banish you still — Ambassador of Aus- 
 tria." 
 
 Now look well at this story, you will see that 
 incident and position are good. But then there 
 is one great objection. Who is to do Richelieu ? 
 Marillac has the principal part and requires 
 you; but a bad Richelieu would spoil all. On 
 the other hand if you took Richelieu, there 
 would be two acts without you, which will 
 never do ; and the main interest of the plot 
 would not fall on you. Tell me what you pro- 
 pose. Must we give up this idea ? The incidents 
 are all historical. Don't let me begin the thing 
 if you don't think it will do, and decide about 
 £ 35 3 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 Marillac and Richelieu. Send me back the pa- 
 pers. You can consult Forster of course. 
 
 XXII 
 
 Rockford, 
 
 September 16, 1838. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 Many thanks for your letter. You are right 
 about the Plot — it is too crowded & the in- 
 terest too divided. — But Richelieu would be 
 a splendid fellow for the Stage, if we could 
 hit on a good plot to bring him out — con- 
 nected with some domestic interest. His wit — 
 his lightness — his address — relieve so admir- 
 ably his profound sagacity — his Churchman's 
 pride — his relentless vindictiveness & the sub- 
 lime passion for the glory of France that ele- 
 vated all. He would be a new addition to the 
 Historical portraits of the Stage ; but then he 
 must be connected with a plot in which he 
 would have all the stage to himself, & in which 
 some Home interest might link itself with the 
 Historical. Alas, I've no such story yet & he 
 C 36 J 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 must stand over, tho' I will not wholly give 
 him up. — I know Volpone well & have been 
 often struck with the force of the very situation 
 you point out. 
 
 I wish if you could lay your hands on 
 U aventuriere oubliato — & the stories in Mar- 
 montel you allude to — that you w d send them 
 down directed to be left at the P. O. Rock- 
 ford. — Depend on it,I don't cease racking my 
 brains, & something must come at last. I see 
 many subjects, but not the one which ought to 
 be popular. You are quite right that we ought 
 to have lightness & comedy, unless indeed — 
 A second "Venice preserved " should ever 
 be sent by the miraculous interposition of 
 Apollo — 
 
 It shall be as you like about Forster. 
 
 But I think on talking it over when the play 
 is done you will see the impossibility of con- 
 cealment from him. — Is there not some col- 
 lection of Italian nouvelettes by Roscoe which 
 might suggest a plot? 
 
 Y r ever 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 c 37 n 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 XXIII 
 
 Knebworth, Stevenage, 
 October 23, 1838. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 You will be pleased to hear that I have com- 
 pleted the rough Sketch of a Play in 5 acts — 
 & I hope you will like it. I have taken the sub- 
 ject of Richelieu. Not being able to find any 
 other so original & effective, & have employed 
 somewhat of the story I before communicated 
 to you, but simplified and connected. — Tou 
 are Richelieu, & Richelieu is brought out, ac- 
 cordingly, as the prominent light round which 
 the other satellites move. It is written on the 
 plan of a great Historical Comedy, & I have 
 endeavoured to concentrate a striking picture 
 of the passions & events — the intrigue & am- 
 bition of that era — in a familiar point of view. 
 At present it is all in prose, & for my own 
 part I should prefer leaving it so as being bet- 
 ter suited to the careless strokes — the rapid 
 effects — & above all the easy & natural light 
 which I desire & design to cast upon the large 
 passion & dark characters brought upon the 
 stage. But as I suppose blank verse will be 
 more likely to ensure solid & permanent sue- 
 C 38 J 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 cess, I fear I must recast several portions into 
 that form. — Let me know your opinion. The 
 comic vein in Richelieu himself is produced 
 by the irony that he really loved, his easy 
 confidence & the brilliant charlatanism of his 
 resources. I cannot say there is much wit 
 anywhere, but there are some situations of 
 Humour — & much I think that somehow or 
 other will get a laugh, & keep the audience 
 in constant play. 
 
 Now, for the rest, I am obliged to bring in 
 many characters ( I am putting a reign upon 
 the stage — tho' condensed into the usual unity 
 of time— & I cannot help it). 2 ndly I shall put 
 you to the xpence of a mob — a mob — & a large 
 one too, I must have! Do you mind this? — 
 I have avoided, however, overweighting any 
 part except that of the Lover, which I suppose 
 will fall to Anderson. And here I want the bril- 
 liant Frenchman witty, but passionate — irreg- 
 ular, yet noble — with one foot on crime, the 
 other on virtue. Mr. Anderson will spoil my 
 conception. But I cannot help that — How- 
 ever, I am running on as if I were sure you 
 would like & take it after all — which, after my 
 false conjectures as to my beloved Orestes — 
 is sheer credulity. — As lam beginning to copy 
 out and retouch, let me know — an plutot — if 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 you have any general hints or suggestions toof- 
 fer, and what you think about the blank verse. 
 Truly y r . s 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 P. S. Do what I will, & I avoid all long speeches, 
 Richelieu will be, I fear, half an hour longer 
 than the Lady. Does that signify? The Lady 
 is very short. 
 
 I see you have turned the Happy Family 
 into the Foresters. 
 
 As Forster knew of the Richelieu plot, I 
 suppose he must now be taken into confidence. 
 If so, send for him & enjoin all caution. 
 
 XXIV 
 
 Charles St., 
 
 November 14, 1838. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I hope you will be able to read my scrawl. I 
 send you the Play complete. Acts I & III may 
 require a little shortening, but you are a mas- 
 ter at that. The rest average the length of Acts 
 in the Lady of Lyons. 
 
 I hope the story is clear. And if the Domes- 
 
 C 40 3 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 tic interest is not so strong as in the Lady, I 
 trust the acting of Richelieu's part may coun- 
 terbalance the defect. For the rest, I say of 
 this as of the Lady — if at all hazardous or 
 uncertain, it must not be acted, & I must try 
 again. Let me know your opinion as soon as 
 you can form it. 
 
 Yours truly 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 XXV 
 
 November 29, 1838. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 On hearing the play [[Richelieu] read last 
 night, one thing struck & surprised me more 
 than anything else, viz., the prosaic and almost 
 bald cast of the general Diction. This I say sur- 
 prised, because I knew I had written a Poem, 
 and yet by some alchemy — the poetry was 
 subtracted. 
 
 On consideration I find it is to be accounted 
 for thus : ( As in the Preface I stated,) the busi- 
 ness part was purposely left plain and simple, 
 prosaic in words — in order to throw the whole 
 C4l J 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 vividness of contrast and light upon those pas- 
 sages, where thought or passion, as in real 
 life, burst spontaneously into poetry. The con- 
 sequence of this adherence to the Grandeur 
 of Nature has become a melancholy defect on 
 the Stage (owing of course, to some error in 
 treatment) — for every one almost of these 
 passages is struck out, as not essential to the 
 business, and the rati nantes that remain will 
 undergo the same process by the further con- 
 densation requisite. So that at last there will 
 remain a stripped & gaunt skeleton of prose 
 robbed of all the bloom & purpureum lumen 
 of the Poetry that it once possessed. 
 
 And the Play as I wrote it & as you first 
 read it will no longer appear on the Stage. 
 This bareness of dialogue is much more de- 
 structive to the effect than you would imagine. 
 And I observed that the parts most effective 
 in reading were ( as in the 4th act ) where the 
 mutilation had not yet reached. — Now, to ob- 
 viate this — when the Play is once condensed 
 — the Dialogue of the retained parts should 
 be rewritten and the business part rendered 
 poetical. A fearful vice in composition (ac- 
 cording to my conceptions of Art ) , but which 
 I suppose is nevertheless essential — since I 
 now see why more experienced Dramatists 
 
 C 42 3 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 — Knowles and Talfourd — have studiously 
 sought it — I say, when a Door is to be shut, 
 "Shut the Door/' Knowles would say, as I 
 think he has said somewhere, "Let the room 
 be airless." Probably he is right. — Now, this 
 change in style will be tedious work — invitd 
 Minerva. I doubt if I can do it at all. At the 
 same time, farfrom complaining of the omission 
 of the poetical passages, I see the necessity of 
 their still more ruthless suppression & I begin 
 at length to despair both of the play & of my- 
 self. — Unless , therefore r on consideration, you 
 see — what at present you deem doubtful — 
 the triumphant effect of the Portraiture & ac- 
 tion of Richelieu himself, you had better return 
 me the Play, & if I can form myself on a New 
 School of art — & unlearn all that toil & thought 
 have hitherto taught me — I will attempt an- 
 other. 
 
 But for this year you must do without me. 
 
 Meanwhile I will beg you not to consult 
 Forster farther. Nor to listen to his sugges- 
 tions. The disposition, certainly not that of par- 
 tial respect, with which he came to the reading 
 — broke out in spite of himself very early in 
 the first scenes of the Play, & the [^page torn 
 here} Manque d'egards at the close, altho' I do 
 not suppose it intended as an affront, & tho' 
 C 43 ^ 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 Heaven knows I have as little over-suscepti- 
 bility on such points as most men, was only of 
 a piece with a certain spirit of disparagement 
 
 — which I have of late observed in him towards 
 myself. Of course I can blame no one for mea- 
 suring me according to the standard he hon- 
 estly forms, nor would it disturb my regard for 
 him generally. But I must be permitted to dis- 
 pute the accuracy of the measurement, tho' I 
 have all respect for the integrity of the Gauger. 
 
 Believe me, my dear Macready, fully sen- 
 sible of your consideration for my own credit 
 
 — & confident of the soundness of your ulti- 
 mate judgement. 
 
 Yours as ever 
 
 obliged and truly 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 XXVI 
 
 Charles St., 
 November 27, 1838. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I am very sorry you have been unwell, & hope 
 
 you are restored. You are right, indeed, in 
 
 C 44 3 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 supposing that I do not perceive the existence 
 of any relation between us in which any little 
 service I may ever have rendered to you has 
 not been most amply repaid. But even were 
 some figures on my side the Balance, not rubbed 
 out, your present letter would indeed be "the 
 moistened sponge" of Aeschylus, blotting all 
 the record. — I fully appreciate the manly & 
 generous friendship you express so well. I have 
 only one way to answer it — I had intended to 
 turn to some other work before me. But I 
 will now lay all by, & neither think nor labour 
 at anything else until something or other be 
 done, to realize our common object. Send back 
 Richelieu, with any remarks that may occur to 
 you. If it seem to you possible — either by al- 
 terations or by throwing the latter acts over- 
 board altogether — to produce such situations 
 as may be triumphant — the Historical charac- 
 ter of Richelieu is not to be replaced, & there- 
 foreis worth preserving. But if neitherofus can 
 think of such situations, we must lay his Emi- 
 nence on the shelf & try for something else. 
 You may still count on me — Health serving 
 & God willing — no less as "a lance at need" 
 than as, my dear Macready, 
 
 Y\ sincere & obliged friend 
 
 E. L. B. 
 C 45 ] 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 P. S. Forster has just written me a very kind 
 and handsome note, which entirely exonerates 
 him from anything worse than the mauvais 
 gout de rietre pas charm'e de moi-meme. Who 
 can complain of being in the same Boat with 
 Richelieu himself? But I acquit him even of the 
 mauvais gout, if he wish it. And after all, you 
 and I know that it is only Tyrants & Cardi- 
 nals who never sleep. 
 
 I would make the alterations you hint at in 
 Richelieu — But I fear they would not suffice 
 after all — The mob might be done away with 
 altogether — & in Act 5, the bell a deep ring- 
 ing for De Mauprat's execution. But even 
 then I fear the mysterious something will be 
 wanting. 
 
 C 46 1 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 XXVII 
 
 November 27, 1838. 
 
 Anquetil. Les Intrigues du Cabinet: Vol. on 
 Louis XIII. 
 
 Voltaire. Hist. Gen. : Vol. containing Admin- 
 istration de Richelieu. 
 
 Testament politique, by Richelieu (Apochry- 
 phal!). 
 
 Memoir es de Richelieu. 
 
 de Brienne. 
 
 Journal de Richelieu (I have never seen it). 
 
 Histoire du Pere Joseph. 
 
 Memoires du Montglat. 
 
 Hist, de France. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 Above I send you a list of Books relative to 
 Richelieu. Eno' to consult if you were going 
 to write his History. But I do not think you 
 will obtain from them much insight into his 
 manner, at least very few details on it. Scat- 
 tered anecdotes that may seem trivial, when 
 collected, furnish a notion of his raillery — his 
 address — his terrible good humour. His vin- 
 dicti veness — his daring — his wisdom — his 
 genius are in the broad events of his history. 
 In France there is a kind of traditional Notion 
 of his Personnel much the same as we have 
 of Henry 8th or Queen Mary — or almost of 
 C 47 ^ 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 Cromwell, viz: a Notion not to be found in 
 
 books, but as it were, orally handed down. And 
 
 this seems general as to his familiarity with 
 
 his friends — his stateliness to the world — the 
 
 high physical spirits that successful men nearly 
 
 always have & which, as in Cromwell, can 
 
 almost approach the buffoon, when most the 
 
 Butcher. For the mere trick of the Manner, I 
 
 fear you will have to draw on your own genius 
 
 almost entirely. 
 
 Your note has just arrived. I shall be in 
 
 (here) from eleven to two. If inconvenient to 
 
 call here, I will call on you, wherever you like, 
 
 after three o'clock. But as I rather wish to 
 
 leave town, if you can call here, it would be 
 
 a little more convenient to me. In that case you 
 
 had best bring his Eminence with you. 
 
 Yrs. truly 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 XXVIII 
 
 Nov. 30 & Dec. 1, 1838. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I will send you back your play. I can make 
 
 l 48 } 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 nothing of it. It seems to me that no improve- 
 ment could give the outline stuff & volume 
 eno' for a 5 act play — tho' it would make a 
 very pretty 3 act piece. — I see nothing else at 
 present, but shall continue to think and read 
 for it. It is no use beginning with a plot that 
 does not both catch my fancy or suit your no- 
 tion. Only I warn you that the former object 
 will not be effected without it be grounded 
 on some conception that may satisfy me as an 
 author as well as a Dramatist. 
 
 I propose meanwhile to complete Richelieu. 
 You can then read it, as we settled, to a select 
 few & abide by the issue. I have very little 
 heart for it, I own, but I see nothing else to be 
 done & for anything else I have still less heart. 
 Let me know what you mean about omitting 
 altogether the scene at Marion de Lorme's. 
 
 Do you mean to have no substitute for it? 
 
 What think you of merely the outside of the 
 House? Franfois coming out with the packet 
 and making brief use of Huguet and Mauprat. 
 Remember you wanted to have the packet 
 absolutely given to Francpois. 
 
 I propose to end Act IV by bringing on Ba- 
 radas at close — & a stormy struggle in Riche- 
 lieu — between his rage — his craft & secret 
 design — his tenderness for Julie, &c. — & at 
 C 49 ] 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 last so to overpower him with all these rapid 
 emotions that he shall fall back in their arms. 
 I will answer for the effect of this to close 
 the act, & besides it will prepare for his illness 
 in act 5. — But if you don't fancy it, let me 
 know, as it will save me much labour. 
 Y r f truly 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 If you or Forster have any scattered & desul- 
 tory remarks to make, let me have them for 
 consideration, as I shall go over the whole 
 play. 
 
 I have thought that one reason why the con- 
 spiracy & plot seem arrested at Act 3 is that 
 Richelieu has the pack et — & even subsequently 
 the audience feel that having the packet, he 
 can save himself at last. The interest might be 
 greatly heightened by delaying the receipt of 
 the packet till Act V. Thus — Scene before 
 Marion's House, Act 2 or 3 — Mauprat about 
 to enter when he sees Francis coming out 
 with Marion — & hears her telling him to give 
 it to the Cardinal. He, not knowing what it is, 
 but suspecting it to be a betrayal of the plot, 
 wrests it from Franfois, who does not recog- 
 nize him in the dark — in his subsequent scene 
 with the Cardinal he is too agitated to recur 
 to it. He is arrested next day — & it is only in 
 
 c 50 ^ 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 Act V — when in Prison with Joseph — that he 
 remembers it. Still unaware of its importance 
 — he gives it to Joseph, who opens & rushes 
 out with it. — This it is that recovers the Car- 
 dinal, & the loss of this packet in Act 4 will 
 greatly increase the apparent desperation of 
 the situation. 
 
 The only objections I see to this are — 1st, 
 Is it natural that Mauprat should have delayed 
 so long giving it? sndly, will it not entail the 
 loss of some fine passages in act between Fran- 
 fois & Richelieu? (The sword may be kept 
 in, however. ) 
 
 If this plan be adopted — & the actual im- 
 portance of the packet kept in view through- 
 out — the suspense may be very great. I tell 
 more perhaps — if, without giving the scene 
 before Marion de Lorme's, Francis may re- 
 turn to Richelieu to say that it has been reft 
 from him — he knows not by whom — & leave 
 the audience uncertain till Mauprat produces 
 it saying how he came by it. Another effect 
 of this will be tightening the connection be- 
 tween Mauprat & Richelieu. — Another thing 
 I should like would be to keep Julie on the 
 stage during Act 5 — Scene with Richelieu & 
 the king — she would augment the interest. 
 But would this be possible ? Think over what 
 C5i 3 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 I have written & give me your thoughts. If 
 you like what I suggest, I '11 talk it over with 
 you — I fear Richelieu must be settled one way 
 or other ( even if for delayed representation ) 
 before I can go with free mind to anything 
 else. In fact, in Act V Joseph may visit Mauprat 
 to ask him what he knew about Beringhen's 
 person as discovery of that is the last hope. 
 Mauprat replies that he is quite ignorant of it. 
 Joseph gives him up for lost when he men- 
 tions the word packet — this reminds Mauprat 
 that he had overheard Marion & Francis 
 — had seized the packet, which had no ad- 
 dress — imagining it solely the exposure of the 
 plot ags. 1 Richelieu's life. I fancy I see great 
 strength in all this, but it is too long to enter 
 into minutiae — by letter. 
 
 XXIX 
 
 Charles St., 
 Wednesday, 
 
 December 14, 1838. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I sent you last year an afterpiece taken from 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 Vathek and another called, I think, Marriage 
 a la Mode. They were by a Miss Tallent, 
 a Constituent of mine. — Could you lay your 
 hands on them, & return them if among the 
 rejected addresses? You said they were kept 
 in order to be looked over in the recess. 
 
 When you inform me on Monday of the 
 fate of our old friend The Clergyman, could 
 you oblige me by sending your note here be- 
 fore 2 o'clock — as at that hour a person will 
 be going down to me at Knebworth and I shall 
 have the ultimatum a day sooner. I am per- 
 fectly prepared for stern truths, and the more 
 I think of it, the more I feel convinced of the 
 advisability of not making the experiment — 
 unless opinions sh d be decidedly in favour of 
 the success — the more so, as very consider- 
 able portions of the play are carried on in the 
 absence of the Clergyman, & may therefore be 
 yet more doubtful on the stage than the closet. 
 
 In Act 5 there sh d be a little alteration. 
 R. says to the Sec?, " Free pardon to the Pris- 
 oner Huguet." — This interrupts the grander 
 order — let him say it to the officer at the time 
 he snatches away Mauprat's death-writ — as 
 the officer is following Baradas out. 
 
 If Richelieu gives the Despatch to the King 
 instead of the Secretary, he must be seated 
 C 53 J 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 so near Louis that by a little " mutual stretch- 
 ing "it can be done without rising ; in that case, 
 when the Sec! says, " Designs against your 
 life," alter to "Designs ags! yourself '." 
 
 Louis 
 Myself most urgent. 
 
 Richelieu {giving the Despatch) 
 Sire, in this department 
 
 There is one matter. Here — most urgent — Take 
 The Count's advice in't. 
 
 If you think Joseph's advice about resigning, 
 Act 4, not effective, you have but to omit it 
 & follow up the Exit of Courtier with lines to 
 the following effect: 
 
 [Exit Courtier 
 
 Richelieu 
 
 God help thee, child — she hears not! look upon her — 
 The storm that rends the rock — uproots the flower — 
 Her father loved me so! — & in that age 
 When friends are broken. — She has been to me 
 Soother, Nurse, plaything — daughter — Are these tears? 
 O shame — shame — dotage — 
 
 Joseph 
 
 Tears are not for eyes 
 That rather need the lightning which can pierce 
 Thro' barred gates & triple walls — to smite 
 Crime where it cowers in secret. 
 
 I 54 3 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 The Despatch ! 
 Set every spy to work! The morrow's sun 
 Must see that written treason in your hands 
 Or rise upon your ruin. 
 
 Richelieu 
 
 Ay, — & Close 
 Upon my Death ! ... I am not made to live. 
 Friends, glory, France, all reft from me — my star 
 Like some vain holy day mimickry of fire 
 Piercing th' imperial Heaven, & falling down 
 Rayless and blackened to the Dust, — a thing 
 For all Men's feet to trample! yea — to-morrow 
 France or a grave — Look up, child — Lead on, Joseph — 
 
 Julie 
 Baradas & De Beringhen, etc. 
 
 The effect of this is to confine, consolidate the 
 intent on the Packet & on Richelieu's Death 
 as the consequence of its probable loss. 
 
 I leave town to-morrow at 2, if you have 
 any suggestions to make before. 
 Y r ? truly 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 C 55 ] 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 XXX 
 
 December 14, 1838. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I enclose you a new Design for the early Part 
 of Act 5, by which we heighten the suspense 
 and avoid — the going from — to return to 
 the Louvre — making Francis (as you once 
 seemed to wish) come with the packet at the 
 critical moment. Should you prefer the scenes 
 first written, Francis, if you think it advis- 
 able, can still come in with the Despatch by 
 a little alteration. As I have not the copy of the 
 Play — & go by memory — one or two little 
 points for alteration in the last scenes, if my 
 proposed alteration please you, I may have for- 
 gotten. But I think I have guarded ags*. most. 
 If you take the New Scenes, you will dispense 
 with Baradas being led thro' the file of Cour- 
 tiers & the words, " My Lords take warning." 
 In this >2 sheet I enclose a few general amend- 
 ments. In the other envelope — the principal 
 one — Let me know how you like it — I was 
 anxious you should have the option before Sun- 
 day's reading. 
 
 Y" truly 
 
 E. L. B. 
 C56^ 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 P. S. You do right to omit the speech about 
 France, Act 4 — any cuts that don't interfere 
 with the natural development in the only 2 
 long Acts, viz : Act l-Act 2, would be season- 
 able, especially where you are not on. 
 
 Alterations {passim) 
 In act 5 — when Julie comes to the King and 
 says anxiously ," Be his Bride ?"Louis answers, 
 "A form, a mere Decorum. Thou knowest / 
 love thee." I fear the effect of this open avowal 
 of adultery and connivance on an English audi- 
 ence. What say you? — it would be softened 
 by his merely saying " Yes " — if you think the 
 Audience will sufficiently understand by that 
 — the consistency of his loving her & yet wish- 
 ing her to marry another. 
 
 In Act V — when Joseph says, "Fall back, 
 Count" he should say, "Fall back, Son!" 
 
 In act 4 — in my last alteration, when Riche- 
 lieu is pitying Julie — says, "I could weep 
 to see her thus — But" — the effect would, I 
 think, be better if he felt the tears with indig- 
 nation at his own weakness — thus: 
 
 "Are these tears? 
 O shame — shame, Dotage" — 
 
 At the end of that Dialogue before Baradas 
 enters he says, " France or a grave — the Pur- 
 
 c 57 3 ~ 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 pie or the shroud," which is tautology ; more 
 action in the following words, "France or a 
 grave — Look up, Child — Lead us, Joseph." In 
 Act 2 — towards the close when Richelieu says 
 all forsake him save the indomitable heart of 
 Armand Richelieu — it would be well to allude 
 to Julie as she now plays so prominent a part 
 also to Mauprat — thus: 
 
 "Of Armand Richelieu. 
 
 Joseph 
 
 Naught beside — 
 
 Richelieu 
 
 Why, Julie, 
 My own dear foster Child, forgive me ! yes, 
 This morning, shining thro' their happy tears 
 Thy soft eyes blest me ! & thy Lord ; in danger 
 He would forsake me not ! 
 
 Joseph 
 
 And Joseph — 
 
 Richelieu 
 
 You 
 
 Well, I believe it — you like me — are lonely 
 And the world loves you not : & I, my Joseph, 
 I am the only man who cared," &c. 
 
 The last alteration in words to Joseph is to 
 soften the coarse words not discerned in the 
 play of " All who do hate & fear you!" 
 58 J 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 XXXI 
 
 Hertford. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 I enclose my note for s£ Haynes Bayley of 
 whose distress and illness I am truly sorry to 
 learn. I should rejoice to aid in extending the 
 subscription but I really hardly know whom 
 to apply to — having once before vainly sug- 
 gested relief for the same person. Lady Bless- 
 ington might. 
 
 Yours truly 
 
 E. L. Bulwer. 
 
 XXXII 
 
 Knebworth, 
 December 18, 1838. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 Many thanks for your kind consideration in 
 writing so late at night & collecting so many 
 written opinions. The result of them is encour- 
 aging, but at the risk of seeming over-fearful 
 I must add also— that it is not decisive. Fox's is 
 
 c 593 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 the most enthusiastic. But he is an enthusiastic 
 person , & kindhearted — Idoubthisj udgement . 
 Serle's assurance that it will succeed better 
 at the beginning than the end occasions some 
 misgivings — for after the first night or two, 
 the end is much more important and excites 
 more attention than the beginning. Brown- 
 ing's short line of " the play is the thing" is a 
 laconism that may mean much or little — be- 
 sides he wants xperience. Mr. Smith's is alto- 
 gether chilling, the more so that he has re- 
 peated a criticism of your own. I doubt whether 
 he hits the right nail in saying that the fate of 
 a mistress of a minister was the real interest 
 of La Valliere or Richelieu, or that great hu- 
 man Questions are not involved in both plays. 
 But the fact of his opinion that the latter wants 
 interest as a Dramatic work is startling and 
 clear — & we need not inquire if he be right or 
 wrong in guessing why it wants it. It may be 
 said that the interest of Richard Iin is only 
 the fate of a bloody tyrant — not greater in it- 
 self or results than the fate of a mighty states- 
 man. But Richard III certainly does not want 
 interest; and in Richelieu — it is the fate of 
 France, of the heart of Europe, as embodied in 
 the Packet and the success of Baradas, which 
 makes the grander interest. But if that inter- 
 C 6oJ 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 est is not perceived, there is a want somewhere 
 in the execution. To my mind the real defects 
 in the play are two-fold — I s ! , that the tender 
 interest as in Mauprat and Julie is weakened 
 and swallowed up in the fortunes of Richelieu ; 
 &2 ndly , and I think this graver — that the final 
 triumph is not wrought out by the pure intel- 
 lect of Richelieu, but depends on the acciden- 
 tal success of Franfois — a conception which 
 wants grandeur, & if the play were unmixed 
 tragedy, would be very much worse than it 
 is now. I wish this could be obviated. But I 
 don't well see how. For if I were to create a 
 new agency for the recovery of the Despatch 
 & make that discovery the result from the be- 
 ginning of the unerring machinations of the 
 Cardinal, he would retain from first to last — 
 that calm certainty of success which would be 
 fatal to the struggle, the uncertainty & the pas- 
 sion which at present create the pathos of the 
 play & the suspense of the audience. 
 
 I would not go the least upon the mere lit- 
 erary merits of the play — ist, because they 
 don't depend upon poetical wording of which 
 everyone can judge, but upon somewhat naked 
 intellect of which few are capable of judging 
 & upon the variety and individualization of 
 the characters, the effect of which must depend 
 C 61 ] 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 upon the actors. What I feel is this — that if I 
 myself were certain of the Dramatic strength 
 of the play, which I was in the Lady of Lyons, 
 I should at once decide upon the xperiment 
 from the opinions we have collected. But I own 
 I am doubtful tho' hopeful of the degree of 
 Dramatic strength, & remain just as irreso- 
 lute now as I was before. I fancy that the effect 
 on the stage of scenes cannot be conveyed by 
 reading. Thus in the 5* act the grouping of 
 all the characters round Richelieu — the effect 
 of his sudden recovery, &c, no reading, I 
 think, can accurately gauge — & in the 4 th act 
 the clinging of Julie to Richelieu, the protection 
 he gives her, will have, I imagine, the physical 
 effect of making the audience forget whether 
 he is her father or not. There they are be- 
 fore you, flesh & blood — the old man and the 
 young Bride involved in the same fate & creat- 
 ing the sympathy of a Domestic relation. More 
 than all my dependence on the stage is in the 
 acting of Richelieu — the embodiment of the 
 portraiture, the work, the gesture, the per- 
 sonation which reading cannot give. But still 
 I may certainly overrate all this, for if the play 
 do fail in interest, the character may reward 
 the actor but not suffice to carry off any tedi- 
 ousness in the play, especially as he is not al- 
 C 6 2 3 ' 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 ways on the stage. On the whole, therefore, 
 I am unable to give a casting vote — and leave 
 it to you, with this assurance that if it be with- 
 drawn, you shall have another by the end of 
 February. 
 
 I hope you received my alterations for Act V, 
 &c, which you ought to have done Saturday 
 morning — If so, pray tell me whether they are 
 adopted or not — or if you can think of any 
 plan to make the seizure of the Packet arise 
 more from Richelieu's intellect and yet not 
 disturb the previous passion and suspense. I 
 think, too, that the effect of Richelieu's rela- 
 tion to Julie w d be infinitely increased if we 
 could introduce, however briefly, more fond- 
 ness between them. Either in Act 1 when she 
 is introduced, or 3 when she escapes the King 
 — something more to put into action what 
 he says in Act 4 when he calls her " Nurse, 
 Soother, Plaything, Daughter/' &c. Tell me 
 also what omissions and minor alterations are 
 suggested. If we should decide "on inducting 
 the Clergyman," I must have the Play again 
 before it is copied out — with such cuts as you 
 may think needful. So as to weave up and 
 repolish the whole. 
 
 You say a Ml" Lane was present, you have 
 not sent his opinion. I shall be here for ten 
 C 6 3 3 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 days longer, if you like to send it down — in 
 that case I will subjoin the Direction. 
 
 What I much want to know is whether the 
 jury knew or guessed whom I was. I fancy it 
 from the wording of their criticisms. 
 
 And there is eno' in the mannerism to be- 
 tray me. I don't feel very sanguine in Blan- 
 chard's judgement — as he thought both Miss 
 Landon's & Hunt's plays were of brilliant suc- 
 cess. To tell you the truth, it is rather your 
 letter and what you say of the opinion of M r . s 
 and Miss Macready that encourage me than 
 the pencil notices. 
 
 Yours most truly 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 P.S. Have you ferreted out Miss Tallent's 
 play yet? 
 
 Direction if the Play be sent down : 
 
 To go by the Bedford coach (no other) 
 leaves Holborn George & Blue Boar at 2 pre- 
 cisely. Directed to me at Kneb worth Park, 
 near Cadicote (Not Stevenage) Herts to be 
 left at the Lodge by the 28 milestone. 
 
 As there is no hurry it need not be sent till 
 you have had leisure to decide on the cuts and 
 reconsider the whole matter — perhaps it may 
 keep till I return. 
 
 Was Act III felt weak? 
 
 C 6 * 3 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 XXXIII 
 
 December 22, 1838. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 I am very sorry I could not return the play 
 £Mrs. Fanny Kemble Butler's^] — this Even! 
 Not having received it till late in the Noon & 
 not being able to work at it till 1 1 at Night. — 
 Of its talent I say Nothing. — It has some 
 xquisite touches — & some great power. But 
 I agree more with Serle than Forster & for 
 your sake & hers I say, " Pause — Reflect," 
 before you make a very dangerous xperiment. 
 Try the ordeal of reading it to women, & a 
 few plain (not literary ) men. Honestly I think 
 that without great alteration — the 3rd Act 
 would close with hisses. At all events, the Pa- 
 thos depends on the Judge not Anne — and if 
 Vandenhoff does the Judge — why — 
 Yours very truly 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 P.S. I should not have said so much about the 
 play — if you were not Manager. I fear the 
 result might be a shock upon your manage- 
 ment among a widish class. Moreover, I fear 
 that as Acts 2 & 3 end with the strongest 
 
 l 65 2 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 (viz: most indelicate) positions, & yet with 
 the feeblest agents ; there will be no respect 
 for the actors to stifle the revolt at the situa- 
 tions. 
 
 xxxiv 
 
 December 24, 1838. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I send the play as you wished. I make the fol- 
 lowing suggestions: 
 
 In Act 1st — about the Play. I think the 
 effect of his grave kindness to Mauprat and 
 Julie is heightened by the comic contrast of 
 reading his play to himself. This may be as 
 follows : 
 
 Richelieu 
 
 Go! 
 When you return I have a feast for you — 
 The last great act of my great play. 
 
 Joseph {going out hastily) 
 
 Worse than 
 The Scourge! 
 
 1™1 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 Richelieu (taking up his play) 
 These verses. Gone! Poor Man! 
 ( Seats himself with his play) 
 
 Sublime : 
 
 Enter Mauprat £«f Julie 
 
 & as follows. 
 
 Act III 
 
 In the scene after Huguet is sent to Bastile — 
 I have put some lines into DeBer's mouth — 
 as an excuse to go out. As he must not see 
 Francis, otherwise he would recognize him 
 at the Bastile. I mention this, for the lines are 
 no great things & you might otherwise cut 
 them out as superfluous. 
 
 Act II 
 
 You have cut out about the Pigmies & Her- 
 cules, but better retain. Bah ! in policy we foil 
 gigantic danger. 
 
 By giants, not dwarfs — the statues of our 
 stately fortune are sculptured by the chisel not 
 the axe. Because they connect themselves with 
 his employment of Marion & Francis. 
 
 In Act V — when Francis and DeBer go out 
 struggling for the packet, DeBerighen must 
 not cry out loud, lest it should seem odd that 
 they are not overheard — the struggle should 
 be rapid, intense — but not noisy. If any blades 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 used, Daggers not swords — as more commo- 
 dious for close struggle. 
 
 Act 3 — still ends weakly. But I have done 
 all I can. 
 
 In the play as printed, I shall add more 
 Elaborate analysis of Richelieu's character & 
 Louis's so as to remove ground for the criti- 
 cisms I referred to last night. And if on the 
 stage he stand out too amiably, it will be seen 
 that he does so from the omission of touches 
 too minute & subtle or scenes too lengthened 
 for the action of a Play. — I shall long to know 
 how it comes out in the green room. I feel 
 very sure of Act V & think better of the inter- 
 est for our time and labour. Fortunately I had 
 done my corrections to-day before the news 
 of poor L. E. L's death, which I have just seen 
 in the paper. It has quite overcome me. And I 
 cannot write now many little things that occur 
 to me. So young, so gifted & I found a letter 
 from her yesterday in high spirits. I have not 
 been so shocked for years. — I hope I shall 
 hear a good acct. of M rs M. 
 
 Most truly y r ! 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 Since writing the enclosed — it occurs to me 
 
 that if you adopt my suggestion, Act 3 & show 
 
 the Bed &c. — it would add to the suspense & 
 
 C 68 ] 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 surprise by omitting Richelieu's words, "You 
 have slain me — I am dead/' &c, & leave the 
 audience in expectation till Mauprat returns, 
 as to what his device really is. 
 
 There are unfortunately so many papers 
 used by way of writs, despatches &c, that we 
 must distinguish broadly between them; the 
 Writs of banishment & Death for Mauprat 
 should be short scraps of Parchment & Riche- 
 lieu's conditions of power which the King signs 
 should be in a small portfolio or pocket-book 
 with clasps. If I remember the History rightly, 
 the Document containing these & other arti- 
 cles of Richelieu's power was absolutely found 
 ( after R's death ) in a red & gold morocco book . 
 The Despatch must be distinguished from the 
 writs, but I hardly know how. 
 
 I should add about Dress. That I think in 
 the pictures of Richelieu, he wears the colour 
 & order of the Saint Esprit — that Louis never 
 wore any colours but black & orange ribbons 
 — that Mauprat must wear black for his first 
 dress as Julie alludes to that colour, & that the 
 general costume is very like Bragelone's, with 
 trowsers to the knee, bows & a mantle. You 
 will see, Act 5, that I have made the King say 
 he promised to hold Baradas' life sacred — i s . 1 , 
 because that will account for the Vindictive and 
 C69 3 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 ruthless Cardinal not killing him; 2 n . d , because 
 at the Commencement Richelieu saying he had 
 another bride, the Grave for Baradas — unless 
 some such obstacle arise at the close, there 
 would be no reason in Baradas' subsequent 
 conduct for the Cardinal's changing his mind. 
 By the way, Richelieu lived more splendidly 
 than the King. Can the scene of their respec- 
 tive rooms convey this idea? 
 
 As they are in each other's arms, happy, 
 Richelieu looks coldly at them & mutters, 
 "After all our pains as Ministers, Kings & 
 Courtiers, Human happiness still goes on." 
 
 END. 
 
 Now look well at this story ; you will see in- 
 cident & position are good. But then there is 
 one great objection. Who is to do Richelieu? 
 Morillac has the principal part & requires you. 
 But a bad Richelieu would spoil all. On the 
 other hand, if you took Richelieu, there would 
 be two acts without you, which will never do, 
 & the principal intent of the plot would not fall 
 on you. Tell me what is to be done. Must we 
 give up this idea? 
 
 Y rs Ever E. L. B. 
 
 The incidents are all Historical 
 
 Don't let me begin the thing if you don't think 
 
 c 70 ] 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 it will do — & decide about Morillac & Riche- 
 lieu. Send me back the papers. 
 
 You can consult Forster, of course. 
 
 You will find much of this story in "Une 
 Maitresse de Louis 13," by Sain tine. 
 
 xxxv 
 
 1838. 
 
 My dear Sir: 
 
 Lord Conyngham suggests strongly, that if 
 possible, The Omnibus would be represented 
 first — it might be said " By particular Desire" 
 — without absolutely saying that it was by 
 Royal Command 
 
 It is understood in the upper circles that the 
 Queen is coming, therefore such a hint would 
 be understood. I know not how far this is pos- 
 sible. The Queen will arrive at 8 — I hear from 
 Serle that he has disposed of all his boxes 
 [The Lady of Lyons]. Webster has written 
 to me to ask me to write him a play for the 
 Haymarket, so I hope we are getting up. 
 
 Y rs truly, E. L. B. 
 
 C 71 3 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 The Queen wants to read the Play. I have 
 ordered a copy to be made up and sent to 
 you at six — will you see it placed in Her M's 
 Box. — Don't forget it. 
 
 xxxvi 
 
 February, 1839. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 Many thanks for the tickets. I cannot find 
 any substitute for Francis, tho' I have been 
 hunting thro' all the memoirs of the next reign 
 for some Son of Fortune brought up by the 
 Cardinal, whose character would correspond. 
 
 He must therefore stay as he is at present. 
 Let me have back my MSS., as soon as they 
 are copied. They ought to bear the motto, "Cut 
 & Come again/* 
 
 If there are any lines to be altered or 
 strengthened, let me know. We will fight up 
 every inch of our way. 
 
 Don't give Louis to Serle without mature 
 
 thought. He would look it well — & walk it 
 
 well. But would he do the passage where he 
 
 discovers the treason & reads the scroll with 
 
 C 72 3 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 sufficient fire and strength? for the Cardinal's 
 effect would be much impaired if Louis's ag- 
 ony & dismay were not forcible — also is he 
 distinctly audible? 
 
 There are so many allusions to the youth 
 of Francis & so much of the interest of the 
 character depends on his being young, that 
 I have very great doubts of the Audience be- 
 ing sufficiently conscious of the great youth 
 of Elton! Wig him as you will. 
 
 When does Jerrold's play come out? 
 
 Y - S ever E. L. B. 
 
 P. S. I am in a deadly rage Having just rec'd 
 the accounts for The Lady in the Provinces 
 17 '£ 3s ! ! ! — the Agency at the Dramatic 
 Authors must be shamefully done. I should 
 like to remodel the whole thing. I am the 
 only man of Business of my whole tribe. 
 
 XXXVII 
 
 February 27, 1839. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I am glad the tag does. With regard to the 
 
 c 73 n 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 Business part of your letter I can only say that 
 it seems to me that the terms had better be 
 regulated by the success. And that all I shall 
 expect is that they may not be so estimated 
 as to defeat my primary object — that of being 
 of service to your enterprise. 
 
 Will you kindly have copied out & sent to 
 me tomorrow, the 4 first lines said by Baradas 
 — Act 1st, Scene 1st, immediately following 
 Orleans: "Well, Marion, see how the Play 
 prospers yonder." 
 
 These 4 lines have been lost by the Printer 
 and I have no other copy. Pray let me have 
 them Wednesday — tomorrow. 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 XXXVIII 
 
 March, 1839. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I cannot devise any change for the metaphori- 
 cal line act III, & must leave it to your own 
 abrupt inspiration. May I beg you to guard me 
 the first night from a race who have previously 
 
 c 74 3 ■ 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 declared themselves my most bitter persecu- 
 tors. — They are always found in the shilling 
 gallery the first night of my plays & carry 
 on their malignant discords under the innocent 
 but delusive appellation of "Babies"! 
 
 Pray ordain that all such implike armfuls 
 may be interdicted to the youthful matrons — 
 who sit amongst the gods. 
 
 May I beg you to give the enclosed to 
 Warde, whose address I don't know — it re- 
 quires the alteration of one word in Act V, his 
 dialogue with Julie : instead of" dark — dream- 
 ing eyes," let him say, "inspiring eyes." 
 
 "yrs 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 XXXIX 
 
 March, 1839. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 Several persons have told me they did not 
 understand how Huguet got the packet, & in 
 the bustle of the scene ( the guards being be- 
 tween the audience & Mauprat in going out) 
 the words "to Huguet" & the previous ques- 
 
 c 75 n 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 tion to Huguet were not heard distinctly. I 
 hope this will find you at Rehearsal and that 
 you will make this as distinct & emphatic as 
 possible. So much depends on it. 
 
 Y r . s in haste 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 XL 
 
 March, 1839. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 There was a little point I forgot to mention 
 today. In Act II d , Scene with Berighen & 
 Mauprat (the part that's left after Julie's 
 exit), DeBerighen in going out also says — 
 " Don't stir — no form," &c; the effect of this 
 was destroyed by Mauprat's remaining sea ted! 
 whereas he ought to be bustling about in an- 
 gry agitation. When DeBerighen says, " Don't 
 stir," he ought to seem as if making at DeBer. 
 — So with "no form" — it is Mauprat's action 
 here that should give point to the other parts. 
 Please just to cast your Universal Eye — Riche- 
 lieu-like — over this, as tho' a trifle, it is an 
 C 76 -} 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 important one & worth the postage of this — 
 from our House. 
 
 Y rs ever 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 I hear at the House nothing but admiration of 
 your acting. 
 
 XLI 
 
 March, 1839. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 If de Beringhen must have another jest, I can 
 
 think of no better than 
 
 "St. Denis travelled without his head. 
 I'm luckier than St. Denis." [Exit. 
 
 In Act II, when Mauprat rushes out for the 
 first time thro' the gardens saying, "I loathe 
 the face of Man/' Baradas exclaims, "I have 
 him ! " This must be allowed for in the very 
 next scene between you & Joseph — you use 
 thesame xpression," I have themnow — I have 
 them." Let Baradas say instead: 
 
 "Go where thou wilt — the hell hounds of Revenge 
 Pant in thy track, & dog thee down." 
 
 C 77 n 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 Baradas ought to be longer & more florid 
 expressing his exultation than Richelieu, 
 whose simplicity of phrase comes from the 
 ease of superior power & uniform success — 
 with whom in fact what raises all the Devils 
 in Baradas' heart is mere Child's play. 
 
 Ward will, I trust, understand that the char- 
 acteristics of Baradas are prodigious energy, 
 restlessness — with youth — love — j ealousy — 
 hate put in contest with the vast & dark move- 
 ment of the old Statesman's intellect — & con- 
 cealed vindictiveness. — Much will depend on 
 his forcing out this contrast. Let me have a 
 list of the Dramatis personce — the names of 
 the actors for all — to print with the play to- 
 night or tomorrow morning as early as con- 
 venient. Let me know exactly what part in the 
 Soliloquy, Act III, you speak, that they may 
 be referred to in the printed play. 
 
 How do you spell Ruelle? The old way was 
 
 Ruel — I find it was the place where Richelieu 
 
 entertained the poet. 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 C 78 ] 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 XLII 
 
 March 13, 1839. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 Pardon one more 2 penny post, to suggest 
 3 small cuts, — which seem to me important. 
 After Miss Faucit, act III, exclaims: 
 
 "More royalty in Woman's honest heart 
 Than dwells within the crowned majesty 
 And sceptered anger of a hundred Kings," 
 
 she now adds, "Yielded — Heavens yielded/' 
 Omit that" yieldedHeav ens yielded. "It comes 
 weak after her effect & interferes with the sud- 
 denness of your " To my breast, close, close ! " 
 
 Act5. When Julie rushes toMauprat &says, 
 "Do with me as you will," omit Mauprat's 
 "Once more ! why this is mercy, Count ! " & let 
 him come at once to "Think, my Julie, life at 
 the best is short — but love immortal." 
 
 In the same act, when Baradas sees the pa- 
 per in the King's hand — and rushes forward, 
 crying, " Hold," & is put back by Joseph. Omit 
 "Death the Despatch" — the audience know 
 what it is — & the familiar & hackneyed word 
 becomes almost ludicrous & hurt the effect to- 
 night. His action suffices to paint his despair & 
 let the King run on. I had forgot to say that sev- 
 
 c 79 n 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 eral persons round me thought that Richelieu 
 should say more to Franfois — something in 
 reward — & declared themselves disappointed 
 that he did not. If you don't object, you might 
 say, " Tour fortune 's made, brave boy; never 
 say fail again/' 
 
 I am very glad you kept in the lines, Act III, 
 "Strange while I laughed" — they were effec- 
 tive & wanted for the after line, " My omens 
 lied not/' 
 
 Yours truly 
 
 E. L.B. 
 
 XLIII 
 
 April 24, 1839. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I delayed answering your note in the hope of 
 calling. But have been prevented. I really feel 
 many scruples & much reluctance touching 
 the Enclosure, since I hear that these Goths 
 — the Proprietors — have seized on the Sur- 
 plus, & that after all your success, you may 
 be defrauded of its just gains. Under these 
 circumstances I feel as if I were swelling the 
 
 CscO 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 tribe of Barabbas, in appropriating to myself 
 any farther portion of profits inadequate to 
 your own just demands & claims. Nor should 
 I prevail on myself to do so had I not an equal 
 scruple with regard to your pride & a feeling 
 that, were it not so, you might be deterred 
 from applying for any assistance I could give 
 you at some future period — the experience 
 of one season at Cov*. Garden will place that 
 Theatre at your own terms — the next — and 
 I feel convinced that you will live to complete 
 what you have so nobly begun. I met Young 
 last night, who spoke with enthusiasm of your 
 exertions, &c. 
 
 Will you dine with me on Sunday May 
 1 2th, to meet Lords Lansdowne & Wrexham, 
 1-2 past 7. 
 
 Truly yours 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 C 81 3 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 XLIV 
 
 Hertford St., 
 Tuesday, 
 
 July 15, 1839. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I was extremely vexed not to be able to come 
 to you yesterday Evening, having been un- 
 avoidably & long engaged to dinner. But I 
 have taken a box for tomorrow — an occasion 
 which inspires me with the most melancholy 
 interest & the deepest regret that my wish and 
 effort to assist your struggle were so unavail- 
 ing. I hope yet that some happy event may con- 
 sistently with prudence & profit, retain you 
 at the head of our suffering Drama. 
 Most affec! & truly yf 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 XLV 
 
 September, 1839. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 As I am prevented going to Kneb worth, 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 write about the play ^Norman] to Hertford St. 
 I shall trim up your first act with a little more 
 poetry. I think that Act 2 should end with 
 something comic — even if you object to the 
 veil — it gives more buoyancy & life to Caesar 
 & contrasts the later acts. 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 I hope to see you in Shy lock. As I happen to 
 be a peculiar Miser in paper, I have been very 
 unhappy at the loss of the y 2 quire I sent you 
 by mistake & humbly request to see it once 
 more. " I 'm very poor — a very poor hidalgo ! " 
 
 XLVI 
 
 Hertford St. 
 1839. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I send you Norman — the only parts of con- 
 sequence between Mother & son omitted are 
 in the 5th act on his second surrender of his 
 birthright — which the present Plot — that will 
 be far more popular & safe — does not per- 
 mit. — I feel certain of your own effects as the 
 C83] 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 most powerful &empassioned you have had yet 
 in any play of mine — during the first four acts 
 \jwords here entirely gone^\ think to strengthen 
 your 5th act if possible — Tho' I think you will 
 grantthatyour joiningthe hands of the parents 
 over Violet's form as if over an altar will pro- 
 duce a much greater effect on the stage than 
 you might suppose in the Closet. I hope cer- 
 tainly, that you will not entertain doubts as 
 to the Play generally — for if this won't do, I 
 can do no other & M r . Webster must look 
 elsewhere — It is literally, "Aut Caesar out 
 nihil." 
 
 But I hope on second reading you will think 
 better of it. 
 
 Any suggestions towards brightening up 
 Gain's part & others — of course I should be 
 most happy to receive. I am going on to Herts 
 on Saturday & hope something will be decided 
 ere then. 
 
 Ever yours, E. L. B. 
 
 C 84 ] 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 XLVII 
 
 1839. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I beg to acknowledge your draft for =£100. 
 I can only express my reluctance to be the 
 cause of any diminution from your inadequate 
 profits, but I feel that you would not listen to 
 a bashfulness of this kind — & that any scru- 
 ples from me might only be an obstacle to 
 any future assistance I can have it in my power 
 to afford you as a "Professional Author." 
 
 I have the fullest reliance on the intention 
 & good wishes of L d f Lansdowne & Nor- 
 manby — I am just returned from dining with 
 the former, where you & your xcellencies & 
 talents were the subject of general conversa- 
 tion & sympathy. — Whenever your request 
 is drawn out, will you suffer me to see it? — 
 & whenever it goes before the P. Council, will 
 you apprise me, that I may have an interview 
 with any influential persons. 
 
 I sK be very much obliged if you would 
 read Norman even hastily, at your early lei- 
 sure, as I shall soon go abroad — & there may 
 be much to alter — supposing you like it as 
 
 C85 J 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 a whole. Time therefore w*! be a great object 
 to me. I am in the middle of a sentimental 
 Modern Comedy — a good subject — in case 
 Norman does not do. But I find Comedy 
 xceedingly difficult & get on very slowly — 
 I dare say I shall write it over 3 or 4 times. 
 — There is a great deal of dramatic pathos & 
 passion in the part designed for you, & a very 
 good low Comedy, old gentleman part, for 
 Farren. I am most sorry to hear the fiends are 
 still at you. I hope to see the [Henry] V* 
 next week when we will talk of these matters 
 — I am enraptured at its brilliant success. I 
 hear nothing can equal the splendour of the 
 pageant xcept the greatness of the acting. 
 
 Ever 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 XLVIII 
 
 Fulham, 
 
 Monday Morning, 
 1839. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 I am extremely obliged to you for your frank 
 C 86 J 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 communication. I can say unaffectedly, my 
 only wish was to bring you some aid, in a 
 struggle with which I heartily sympathize, & 
 my only regret is now not to have succeeded 
 in that object. 
 
 Will you have the goodness to send the 
 Ms ^Norman] sealed up to 36 (a) Hertford 
 St. 
 
 Y r . s truly 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 XLIX 
 
 Craven Lodge, 
 Fulham, 
 Sept. 25, 1839. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I send you the play £Sea Captain, afterwards 
 known as The Rightful Heir] founded on Nor- 
 man, but entirely changed, & I think so much 
 of it that I regret it is not at your own theatre 
 it is to be produced. You will find your part 
 greatly strengthened — &also the comic relief 
 you wanted — Elvira (that Woman), tho' still 
 strong, is toned down. But there are 2 other 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 characters, Gorper & the Inquisitor — whom 
 I fear we shall be put to for suitable actors. I 
 can't do better than this — I am sure. I should 
 be greatly obliged by your opinion as soon as 
 possible. If you can suggest no alterations, tant 
 mieux. — It will want my last verbal revision. 
 Perhaps too in the last Act — you may sug- 
 gest means for an earlier entrance for Don 
 Caesar. Pray write me a line as soon as you 
 can. I stay in Town or at Fulham for your 
 judgement. 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 Knebworth, 
 Wednesday, 
 
 October 23, 1839. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I have made some alterations in the diction of 
 the earlier acts, & to save time I enclose you 
 the proofs £Sea Captain^] — which when you 
 have read, please to send to Saunders & Ott- 
 ley. The principal are as follows: 
 
 C 88 ] 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 Act I. 
 
 1. 
 
 It seems a little too abrupt. Norman's entering 
 & Violet so immediately after Prudence goes 
 out. I have given her therefore a few pretty 
 lines which strengthen her part, p. 18. 
 
 2. 
 
 Your comedy with Prudence is improved by 
 being put into blank verse — it makes the 
 change less abrupt — the words are very little 
 altered, pages 20-21. 
 
 3- 
 
 I have altered your final exit at close of Act. 
 
 But don't know whether it will do. 
 
 Scattered throughout this act, there are a 
 few verbal alterations which you can attend to 
 or not, as you glance over them. 
 
 Act II. 
 
 By a very trifling alteration in words, Sir 
 Maurice's Dialogues with Lady A. & Percy 
 are put in blank verse. It will not give them 
 any more trouble. But some actors do not act 
 blank verse so well & easily as they do prose. 
 If this be the case with Strickland, better per- 
 haps not disturb him. I leave this to you. 
 
 One or 2 verbal alterations in this act which 
 you will see in the margin. 
 
 c 89 j 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 Act III, page 59. 
 
 I have given a very happy point to Sir 
 Maurice which I should like inserted, if you 
 see no objection. Give me a line to say if you 
 like these corrections, and if yourclosing lines, 
 Act I, will do. 
 
 Ever y rs 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 Pray let Saunders have the proofs as soon as 
 possible. 
 
 LI 
 
 November, 1839. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 Pray have the papers dipp'd in spirits of wine. 
 The delay in burning marred the effects yes- 
 terday. I think I shall propose a few more cuts 
 Act 5 £Sea Captain]. But shall try and see that 
 last scene again to-night. 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 C90} 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 LII 
 
 Heme Bay, 
 Sunday night, 
 Nov. 4, 1839. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 It seems to me that if it were possible you 
 would tear the proofs instead of burning them, 
 you would greatly heighten the effect. Each 
 time I have seen this, I have felt the effect de- 
 stroyed by the comparative tameness of the 
 physical agency — the delay in taking fire & 
 the awkward struggle & no struggle of Ash- 
 dale. In my earliest sketch of the play £Sea 
 Captain J I had introduced a watchfire, which 
 would have had a very different effect , but which 
 I omitted as too evident for the purpose. The 
 action of tearing the paper is far more forci- 
 ble — it is in fact making the actor the agent; 
 whereas when fire does it, he is only passive 
 — the Fire is the agent. I don't know whether 
 you will like to venture this experiment one 
 night. I must leave it in your hands. 
 
 I should like much to hear if Knowles 
 swamps us — a single word on that subject sent 
 to Craven Cottage will be forwarded to me. 
 
 Y r . s ever 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 C 91 3 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 LIII 
 
 Dublin, 
 Nov. 30, 
 1839. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I shall be glad to hear how the Sea Captain 
 gets on tho' judging from the House I last saw 
 & from the newspaper accounts of the crowds 
 at Cov. Garden, I am fearful that I shall not 
 have a very favourable answer. — It wants 6 
 weeks to the 15th January. I can hardly im- 
 agine that Webster can find it answer to run 
 it on every night till then. — Do you think 
 during the recess it would be advisable or safe 
 to alter the play — substitute in the 3 d act 
 some other agency for Onslow's death — get 
 rid of Gaussen — and study some new strength 
 for Act 5 ? To do so would unfortunately in 
 some measure justify the Hostile critics. 
 
 Richelieu has been brought out here with 
 great success. Calcraft plays it better than you 
 w? suppose and the mise en scene is xcellent. 
 Calcraft copies your Cardinal of course — and 
 to those who have not seen the original it is 
 effective. 
 
 Y r . 
 
 E. L. B. 
 I 9* 3 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 LIV 
 
 Hertford St., 
 
 Tuesday, 
 
 1839. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 A foreign Lady of distinction, known to a 
 most intimate friend of mine, has written the 
 accompanying play. She makes it a particular 
 request, that you w d glance over it & accord 
 her 2 minutes interview. It is probable ( I have 
 not seen the play myself) that it may not suit 
 the English stage, but I should feel peculiarly 
 obliged, in that case, by such an intimation as 
 may most soothe disappointment, & if more- 
 over you could spare the time to receive her 
 visit it would be an additional favour ; should 
 the latter be possible — will you be kind eno' 
 to fix the day & hour, & as I am leaving 
 town will you send your reply to me, to the 
 R. Hon b ! e C. D'Eyncourt, 5 Albemarle S l . who 
 will be good eno' to communicate its purport 
 to the Lady. 
 
 Y rs truly 
 
 E. L. Bulwer. 
 
 I 93 3 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 LV 
 
 Hertford St., 
 Dec. 20, 1839. 
 
 My dear Macready : 
 W? the office of censor ( Dramatic ) be one 
 either agreeable to yourself or which as being 
 still on the Boards you could with propriety ac- 
 cept? I say this, for in consequence of C. Kem- 
 ble's health, applications are already being 
 made for the post. J. Kemble jun. has applied. 
 Now I have learned to-day that there w d be 
 every disposition to give you the preference 
 sfr! you wish to apply — and that being the case 
 hasten to tell you so. 
 
 Yours in hurry 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 The subscription to the testimonial is very 
 good. 
 
 At all events keep this secret. 
 
 C 94 ^ 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 LVI 
 
 December, 1839. 
 
 My dear Macready : 
 
 I am very glad I wrote to you. But do you not 
 overrate the salary of the censor? Is it more 
 than 2 or 3 hundred a year? I cannot see the 
 least necessity for your implying any pledge 
 as to leaving the stage, and since you see no 
 objection to being censor while you act, I am 
 sure no one else ought. Nor could any voice 
 be raised against your appointment. — Since 
 you ask my suggestion, I earnestly entreat 
 you to write at once to the Lord Chamberlain 
 (Uxbridge). Don't lose a moment — ask for 
 the vacancy — should it occur. Kemble's health 
 the natural excuse — others are applying. I 
 should state the reasons you suggest in y! note 
 to me why actor and censor are not incompati- 
 ble, but you might also add that rather than 
 lose the appointment, you w d . resign altogether. 
 
 This they w d . never dream of wishing — 
 quite the reverse. But still the offer might be 
 made. 
 
 Send me at the same time & as soon as pos- 
 sible a duplicate of your Memorial that I may 
 
 1 95 3 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 make proper use of it. I have secured Lord 
 Uxbridge's brother-in-Law, the vice-Cham- 
 berlain George Byng, your great admirer & 
 friend — & I am now going to write to him to 
 say you will accept the appointment. 
 
 In dreadful haste — but in the sincerest de- 
 light to serve your views in every way. 
 
 Y r . s ever E. L. B. 
 
 My haste is to catch Byng before he leaves 
 town. 
 
 LVII 
 
 Hertford St., 
 
 Wednesday, 1840. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 A M: Richardson, the geologist & translator 
 of Korner, has sent me the accompanying 
 Ms. of an afterpiece to transmit to you. He 
 says it is a translation of a piece that makes 
 the greatest effect in Germany. 
 
 I have looked over it — there is a great deal 
 
 of fun in the idea, but it evidently wants a 
 
 great deal of curtailment & a great deal of 
 
 dressing up for the English Stage ; in fact it 
 
 £96 1 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 should be put into the hands of a practised 
 farce writer. Howbeit at all events you will 
 do me the favour I know to send a kindly 
 answer to the Author if declined altogether. 
 His address is Geological Department British 
 Museum. 
 
 Y r . s very truly, 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 LVIII 
 
 Craven Cottage, 
 Fulham, 
 
 Friday, 1840. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 Many thanks for your letter. I have been en- 
 deavouring in vain to recall my notion of the 
 Heautontimorumenos, but all I can gather is 
 the impression that it will afford one very fine 
 scene or even Act — but I cannot see help for 
 more. The German story from Mrs. Opie will 
 make a very pretty Inchbald sort of play — but 
 lacks brilliancy, depth & effect for long & pro- 
 found sensation. The more I thiqk, the more I 
 am persuaded, that since you dislike Tragedy, 
 
 1 97 3 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 Pure Comedy would be the thing. And all, in 
 this, I will ask you to do is to give me an idea 
 of the sort of Comic Character which will suit 
 yourself. No doubt, in your Stage xperience 
 — you have often said — "If I could get such 
 or such a character fully elaborated, I could 
 make a great hit in it." Think but of this, & 
 give me the fullest conception of it you can. 
 What I want is — that all its pathos & height 
 should not be apart from the comic, but belong 
 so essentially to it (as in Don Quixote) that 
 you should almost laugh & weep, ridicule & 
 admire in a breath. 
 
 My fault is to separate the comic from the 
 grave, but I think I could do much if I once 
 saw how to blend the two in one conception. If 
 I were writing a comedy for Farren, I should 
 soon knock it off. But strange to say, you are 
 my stumbling-block — I cannot raise myself up 
 to that grave high Humour which would alone 
 suit your dignity. My forte in comedy would 
 be Farren Characters — I think it should be 
 modern life — & introduce popular scenes — 
 Kensington Gardens — the Stock Exchange 
 Gradgrind agent etc. Yet I have often medi- 
 tated on Athenian Comedy — & for the first time 
 in Dramatic History, place the scenes & the life 
 of that People on the English stage. The Law 
 
 C 98 3 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 on which Plautus builds so largely gives half 
 the Plot at once — viz: that the Nearest Rela- 
 tion must marry or find a Husband for, an 
 orphan girl — once I thought of Pericles him- 
 self, who after passing a law to illegitimatize 
 the offspring of the foreign women , intrigues to 
 legitimatize his own Son by Aspasia. But this 
 would require an Aspasia ! & besides would be 
 called Immoral. 
 
 Athenian Comedy abounds in character. The 
 Parasite, the Demagogue, the plotting slave — 
 the gay profligate termed Dandy — Philosophy 
 & whoring — still, it would be an xperiment! 
 
 This is all I can say — I shall have one Month 
 of Leisure — from the middle of September to 
 the middle of October ( my best period for the 
 vein ) — after that time, I have a most arduous 
 engagement & shall be tied to Time. — Calom- 
 nie is excellent, but I have been so often ac- 
 cused of borrowing from the French that I had 
 better avoid the charge, & unless I borrowed 
 largely from Calomnie I should fall upon the 
 School for Scandal. 
 
 Yours most truly, 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 C 99 1 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 LIX 
 
 1840. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 I should have answered your letter before, but 
 was in hopes that something might occur. Alas ! 
 the vein is still barren. Forster will tell you 
 how he returns to my old Idea of The Public. 
 He fancies he sees dignity and pathetic interest 
 in the situations & his ideas seem very good. 
 But I cannot find a clue to any plot. If you talk 
 over this with him, some outline may suggest 
 itself. It might embody a part of Calomnie. 
 I have thought a little of a mixed comic clas- 
 sic play — Terentian — Scene Athens & subject 
 taken from the favourite distress of the Greek 
 Comedians — viz: the Law which obliged the 
 nearest relative to marry an orphan. I think 
 something serious & pathetic might arise here 
 — & the Greek slaves parasites & boasters may 
 furnish comic characters. But I don't see my 
 way farther. 
 
 Unless a very good comedy suggest itself, 
 a mixed play is safer, especially where the 
 comic company is not so strong as the grave, 
 which I fancy must be your case & indeed the 
 
 C 1GO 3 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 case everywhere. A mixed play may centre 
 itself like The Lady of Lyons in 4 characters. 
 Yours ever 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 LX 
 
 May 24, 1840. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I was summoned to Kneb Saturday, return this 
 evening & find by mistake all my letters have 
 been forwarded to me ; if therefore you have 
 written to me, I have not had your note. Did 
 you, then, make any appointment with me to- 
 morrow evening, if so, when and where? 
 Truly y" 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 C "» 3 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 LXI 
 
 June 27, 1840. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 I have thought of a comedy & will show you 
 the first two acts when in a state for it before 
 I proceed further. But what I wish to know is 
 — whether it would be possible to get Farren 
 at the Hay market, also Anderson. I hardly 
 know how I could in any way get on in my 
 present plan without them. 
 
 I have an old gentleman whom Strickland 
 c d not make effective, but who w d suit Farren 
 ... & I have a young Lord with a dash of wit & 
 sentiment about him whom Webster or Lacy 
 w d . ruin. 
 
 W* Buckstone & Elson be at the Hay- 
 market? 
 
 In short, tho' my Comedy may not do at all 
 — which I can soon see — it won't do at all 
 events without quiet force — the characters, 
 yours excepted, are very equal. My proposed 
 title is "Appearances" [afterwards called 
 Money], the idea a genteel Comedy of the 
 present day — the Moral, a satire on the way 
 appearances of all kinds impose on the public, 
 
 C 102 ] 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 you a rogue playing the respectable man — & 
 the Intellect of the play. I repeat that as yet it 
 is very uncertain whether it will do. But if I 
 can achieve the first acts, I think I see my way 
 thro' the rest. — 
 
 Lastly. When w d . it most be wanted & best 
 come out? 
 
 Pray get me minute & faithful answers 
 touching Farren, Anderson etc. 
 
 Y r . s truly 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 I still continue in a very bad way. Hope to 
 get over to Carlsbad. 
 
 LXII 
 
 September, 1840. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 Do you still want my Play £Money] ? Frankly 
 
 yes or no. 
 
 I can now copy it fairly. I have heightened 
 the individuality of your character — by what 
 I think a happy afterthought & given to the 
 whole play a purpose & philosophy it wanted 
 
 C 103 3 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 before. This you may conjecture by the Title 
 I now suggest 
 
 "The Egotists" 
 
 or 
 
 The Sin of the Century. 
 
 I propose carrying Egotism thro' many of its 
 
 various Shades. 
 
 Y r . s very truly 
 
 E. L. B. 
 I have been ill again. 
 
 LXIII 
 
 Aix, 
 September 13, 1840. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 I sent you 3 Acts of the Comedy [Money] by 
 the Bag — from Brussells I send now 2 by the 
 Post. A thousand pardons for taxing you so 
 heavily. But I have no choice of any other con- 
 veyance — &amjust leaving Aix. I know, how- 
 ever, that you will not grudge it if the thing 
 is good. As I have little time to write now — 
 I come at once to my critical remarks. 
 
 1 st. The Scotch of Macfinch &c had better 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 be looked over by one more learned than I am 
 in that Athenian tongue. 
 
 2nd. The reading of the will — & the serv- 
 ing the execution & arrest. Dramatic Vraisem- 
 blance of this I am not an adequate judge. 
 
 3d. Is Doleful too much the name of a Farce 
 — if so, change it. 
 
 4. I think in the first 3 acts you will find 
 little to alter. But in Act 4 — the 2 scenes 
 with Lady B. & Clara — & Joke & the Trades- 
 men don't help on the Plot much — they were 
 wanted, however, especially the last to give 
 time for change of dress & smooth the lapse 
 of the theme from money to dinner ; you will 
 see if this part requires any amendment. Would 
 it be possible to introduce another Scene of 
 Passion here with Clara & Evelyn? I fear not. 
 
 5. Are the Acts too long ! They are shorter 
 than in the Jealous Wife. 
 
 6. And principally with regard to Act 5 I 
 don't feel too easy. The first idea suggested 
 by you & worked on by me was of course to 
 carry on Evelyn's trick to the last — & bring 
 in the creditors &c when it is discovered that 
 he is as rich as ever. I so made Act 5 at first. 
 But I found these great objections: 
 
 1st. The trick was so palpable to the audi- 
 ence that having been carried thro' Acts 3 & 4, 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 it became stale in Act 5 — & the final dis- 
 covery was much less comic than you w d . sup- 
 pose. 
 
 2ndly. From the conviction of the Audience 
 that Georgina supposing him poor w d . decline 
 his hand, all the interest in the strong scene 
 between Evelyn & Clara was weakened — 
 whereas Sir John having discovered — & his 
 having got a supposed letter from Georgina 
 after that discovery — the audience might think 
 him again deceived & entangled & therefore 
 take adeeper interest in the position with Clara. 
 
 3dly . After Georgina ( whom I then brought 
 on the stage still supposing him ruined) de- 
 clined him for Frederic, he of course rushes to 
 Clara. But his burst is spoilt by the presence 
 of the crowd of vulgar creditors, Glossmore, 
 Kent, &c. waiting for their money — & some- 
 how or other in short I found that in this con- 
 ception the grave & the gay spoilt each other. 
 My present idea of Sir John discovering the 
 trick has given much more interest to the act. 
 Yet I am not pleased with it still altogether. 
 I think it wants coup & completeness. But you 
 are the best judge. I am sure on the whole that 
 we have ample stuff for a better comedy than 
 I ever thought I should write, thanks to your 
 suggestion to which I have but given a form. 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 I have only got a rough copy of bits & scraps. 
 Therefore Pray let me know very early at 
 Frankfort that you have received the 5 par- 
 cels. They will probably arrive the same day 
 or within a day of each other. 
 
 Yours in haste 
 
 E. L.B. 
 Direct Poste restante 
 
 Frankfort. 
 
 I propose "Money;" a Comedy for the title. 
 I had thought of Money makes the Man or 
 Men & Money. But I think Money the best 
 & prettiest. 
 
 LXIV 
 
 This address till Nonnewerth, 
 
 I reach Coblentz, The Rhine, 
 
 Frankfort on Maine. September 15, 1840. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I write to tell you — from Nonnewerth — the 
 Gem of the Rhine — the Isle on which Roland's 
 mistress lived, a Nun — the isle on which when 
 I was younger I wasted a world of enthusiasm 
 
 C 1Q 7 ] 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 in the Pilgrims of the Rhine — before me the 
 Drachenfels — beside me Rolandseck — and 
 such a Devil of a cold room as I am in! ! ! 
 No fireplace — no curtains, & my beast of a 
 servant has lost my Nightcap ! And yet it is 
 Nonnewerth — I ought to feel romantic — I'm 
 sure I'm freezing. And Mon Dieu, Mon Dieu 
 qu'oifaire — for a Nightcap! Out of my win- 
 dow, the prospect is enchanting, except that 
 there is a great deal of dirty linen hanging 
 up to dry. Schiller wrote his finest ballad on 
 the legend of this spot ( I wonder whether he 
 generally slept with a Nightcap). Revenons 
 a nos moutons. Last Night as I was travelling 
 — between Aix-la-Chapelle & Boulogne — 
 much too cold to sleep ( tho'then I had a Night- 
 cap!) — & smoking a cigar of more than or- 
 dinary merit — the moon & stars bright in 
 Heaven & myself considering how many Tha- 
 lers de Prusse I had thrown away in the vain 
 search for health — my mind by a natural di- 
 version settled itself on the Comedy of Money 
 ( you've no notion how cold I am ! ), and I was 
 more & more persuaded that Act 5 wanted 
 shortening — tho' I find it difficult to suggest 
 the precise alteration. 
 
 I take it for granted that two objects are 
 necessary — 1st, to keep the audience in some 
 
 C 108 3 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 suspense; sndly, to give as much interest as 
 possible to the scene between Evelyn & Clara. 
 Hence I imagine that Sir John ought to dis- 
 cover the trick ( that discovery effecting these 
 objects). But on the other hand, this a little 
 lowers the intellectual dignity of Evelyn, 
 whose excuse for this trick ought to be its suc- 
 cess, & makes the catastrophe turn not on his 
 successful skill in outhumbugging Sir John, 
 but on the accident of Sir John's punishment 
 in the deceit of the dower. What think you of 
 that objection? — I think also that the Audi- 
 ence will want to see reintroduced & shamed 
 that Chorus of Worldly Characters who have 
 moved round the principals — thro the Play. 
 This last I could effect with encreased comedy. 
 Suppose Sir John knows that Evelyn is not 
 ruined — but the rest imagine he is. Bring in 
 Glossmore — tradesmen — several members of 
 the Club, &c, whom he may be supposed to 
 have borrowed of. And while they are insisting 
 on their money, Sir John hugging himself in his 
 superior cleverness & saying to Evelyn, " I '11 
 stand by you, my dear fellow." But in this 
 Comedy Evelyn can have no share. It must suc- 
 ceed his Interview with Clara and his convic- 
 tion that Georgina had lent him the io,ooo=£. 
 He therefore can have no spirits for any kind 
 
 C 1Q 9 3 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 of joke — otherwise the time to introduce them 
 is when Sir John has dismissed Lady Beever 
 for Georgina — then they come in — to them 
 Sharp announcing not only the boro', but a 
 vomit of things, showing Evelyn's opulence 
 — the astonishment of the Dupes who are dis- 
 missed by Evelyn's merely saying to Sharp as 
 he is running on, "Pay these gentlemen, will 
 you?" — Sir John's rapture & then the coup 
 of Georgina's departure. But in all this, as I 
 before said, what can Evelyn do? His part is 
 not strong as it ought to be — already in Act 5. 
 In short, you must well consider this act. — I 
 think it \v d . be desirable, if possible, to reintro- 
 duce the crowd of characters. But if the 4 acts 
 do, we may consider the Play as settled, for we 
 shall be sure to shape out the 5th which has 
 some very good things in its position. — After 
 your last speech in Act 5 as sent to you, I 
 propose to add something to take away from 
 its didactic tone & bring back both the comic 
 spirit & the picture subject of the Play. It will 
 run thus 
 
 Doleful 
 But for the truth & the Love when found, to make us toler- 
 ably happy — we should not be without — 
 
 Lady Beever 
 Good health. 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 Doleful 
 
 Good spirits. 
 
 Clara 
 A good heart. 
 
 Evelyn {shaking his head at Clara & half gaily, half sadly) 
 
 And enough Money! 
 
 I write this taking it for granted you have ere 
 now received the 5 acts & hoping to hear to 
 that effect at Frankfort. I continue very poorly. 
 The climate is dreadfully cold & I am now just 
 going to retire to rest — without A Nightcap! 
 If the play does generally, send me a de- 
 tail of all the corrections you would suggest, 
 & if I don't return to England, I will send it 
 you thus amended & with its best polish. With 
 regard to the terms — I take it for granted that 
 Webster will agree to the same as for the Sea 
 Captain — 600 £ down for 2 years — provided 
 he continues the Haymarket. — But I must not 
 count on the chickens, unless I hear from you 
 that they will bear hatching. — Whoever does 
 Blount must not haw-haw, but be perfectly 
 simple & young & good looking & smooth. 
 Doleful & Sir John require very good actors. 
 
 c m 3 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 LXV 
 
 September 26, 1840. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 Your letter of the 21st reached me this morn- 
 ing (not the other — the Lost Unpaid). I am 
 truly enchanted that the comedy [[Money]] 
 seems to you good, & likely to succeed, & your 
 congratulations are so warm & friendly that 
 they make me insensible to the cold of this 
 Barbarous Climate. I continue ill & am indeed 
 worse than ever as to my principal malady. 
 I shall return to England in a few days — and 
 if you will then return me my copy or another 
 — with all your suggestions — I will see to 
 them during the few days I shall stay in Town; 
 & leaving the Play & its fate in your hands, 
 set out either to Italy or Cadiz. All the Doc- 
 tors here concurring in the advice of a warm 
 climate for the Winter. 
 
 With regard to the Characters — would the 
 interest of the Play be heightened by making 
 Georgina more interesting & Blount more 
 witty — more of the gay blood of the old Com- 
 edy. His & her parts both are at present dis- 
 agreeable & will require great skill in indiffer- 
 
 C 112 n 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 ent actors to carry off. — So indeed will Sir John 
 — for I recollect how Sir Maurice in the Sea 
 Captain was spoilt because the audience will 
 not sympathize in Humour when unconvinced 
 unless the actor has great subtlety. Consider 
 all this well. Consider also Act 5, thro' which 
 I do not yet see my way to improvement. W d . 
 it prolong the interest tomake Blount & Geor- 
 gina return with Lady Bee ver — Georgina hav- 
 ing declined to run off but refusing Evelyn be- 
 fore Sir John can interfere &generally express- 
 ing her regret at her deception? — So thro' 
 their consistency Blount & Georgina must be 
 elevated throughout from their present selfish 
 insignificance. 
 
 Does not the ending of Act 2 leave rather 
 a painful impression & displease one with 
 Evelyn — all the sympathy being for the girl? 
 Can what Evelyn says in that 5 Scene with 
 Clara be embellished & heightened ? Her part 
 beats his there. 
 
 Will you ag 5 ? I come to town have the Law 
 points as to the vraisemblance of the will & 
 the technicalities of serving the Execution & 
 the Arrest looked up — one w d . not fail on these 
 points. The Stage allows a certain looseness 
 — but sufficient accuracy to satisfy a miscella- 
 neous audience must be kept up. See also, I 
 
 ■C 113 ] 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 entreat, to the Scotch of our friend Macfinch. 
 
 I will have a little programme of the Scenes 
 — of the Actors agst we meet. 
 
 As for you, my dear Macready, whenever 
 you can find me a Man with more thoroughly 
 the air, breeding & person of a gentleman, I 
 will allow that you may be diffident as to act- 
 ing the man of fashion — not till then. 
 
 Recollect — that Evelyn is always simple — 
 I should suggest his first dress — a black frock 
 buttoned up, black stock & no collar ( which 
 always looks rather seedy ) , trowsers without 
 straps & shoes; in his second dress — exactly 
 your usual costume. Sir John should wear 
 a blue coat with velvet collar, buttoned up — 
 the Kings button. In the Evening — his or- 
 der of the Guelph — breeches & silk stock- 
 ings. Blount must be perfectly dressed — also 
 Smooth. D'Orsay may be consulted here. Stout, 
 with a little brown coat, blotting-paper trow- 
 sers, coloured cravat & thick stick. Glossmore 
 is a ci devant j eune homme about 45 , wears studs 
 & plenty of shirt. Doleful ought to be hand- 
 some, to account for Lady B — liking him. 
 
 The Butler's pantry was meant, partly to 
 give time to the others to dress, & partly to 
 carry on the time from morning till dinner — 
 otherwise it is superfluous. 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 I conclude the parts to be cast as follows : 
 
 Lady Beever 
 
 : Mrs. Sterling, whom Forster recommends 
 
 Clara : 
 
 Miss Faucit 
 
 Georgina : 
 
 Miss Taylor i.e. Mrs. Lacy 
 
 Glossmore : 
 
 Who? 
 
 Smooth : 
 
 Phelps — who better ? His part seems to me excel- 
 
 
 lent. I sh<i like to act it 
 
 Blount : 
 
 Lacy 
 
 Stout : 
 
 Wrench 
 
 Sir John : 
 
 Strickland 
 
 Macfinch : 
 
 Who? 
 
 Doleful : 
 
 The Manager Webster 
 
 The old Member with the snuff-box, pray 
 don't omit — even to his last word. He is the 
 Philosophy of the whole scene. The perfect in- 
 difference of the ordinary world to the emo- 
 tions of its principal actors. No matter who is 
 ruined, all he cares about is his snuff-box. You 
 must enter the man who performs this. I hope 
 the Play is not much too long. What I most 
 fear are some long speeches of Sir John's at 
 the beginning ; but they seemed necessary for 
 the full development of his character after- 
 wards. 
 
 You see, my dear Fellow, that you must al- 
 ways suggest my plots & situations. Till you 
 gave me the outline I was all abroad — I only 
 return to your lips your own chalice. I have 
 thought of another capital subject for a Com- 
 
 l *15 3 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 edy if this succeeds, viz.: " The Public." That 
 is the various humbug carried on on behalf & 
 under name of the Public — together with the 
 absurd inconsistencies of that precious Fallacy 
 called Public Opinion. The distinction between 
 the grave eternal People & the noisy frivolous 
 false likeness called the Public. I see great 
 fun & a high moral out of this — if when the 
 time comes we can think of a story. The Prin- 
 cipal Character should be a Minister or a Pa- 
 triot, & what a satire one might make on the 
 Press ! 
 
 By the way, I hope the Politics in the Com- 
 edy — being all general & not at all Party — 
 viz. between that Glossmore & Evelyn — will 
 not lay us open to unfair charges or censors 
 notice hisses. Think of this. 
 
 Y rs Ever 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 Frankfort 
 
 I shall expect here y r . promised & dictated 
 letter sent after you receive this. My address 
 will be The Cottage, Fulham. 
 
 c"«o 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 LXVI 
 
 October, 1840. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 Yours is rec d to-day. Regarding the Pro- 
 logue & Epilogue. I have a superstitious hor- 
 ror of such things. I shall never forget the cold 
 damp thrown over the Theater when Ml H. 
 Wallack in black shorts stepp*! forward to 
 freeze the Audience with the prologue to La 
 Valliere. Besides — the Play £Money^| is al- 
 ready long & the 10 minutes occupied by 
 Prologue & Epilogue it 's to be spared. I will 
 think over it, but not with a good heart. 
 Meanwhile tell me who you propose to speak 
 them. There are no persons to whom such 
 things could be trusted except yourself — and 
 out of the rest, perhaps Miss Faucit ? Eh ! Give 
 me your idea on this — as of course the kind 
 of composition depends on who is to be the 
 Oracle. 
 
 With regard to Smooth's white coat ( I sup- 
 pose great-coat), there is one objection. It is 
 the London Season that is Summer — & be- 
 sides it is a very dangerous article of dress 
 unless the figure carries it off well. If he likes 
 
 c 117 3 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 to wear it, Jackson must make it — in the 
 present fashion — no buttons behind. 
 
 I will see if another line can be added to 
 his part in his first scene, when I get the proofs 
 thereof, having no copy here. — Lake should 
 have black shorts & silks — powder — smart 
 showy waistcoat & his butler's jacket on 
 (when he has his scene) — to shew what he 
 is. When he comes on to you — a blue coat 
 & gilt buttons. — You did not tell me how to 
 smooth over the difficulty that Clara, know- 
 ing Evelyn had been led to suppose Georgina 
 wrote to the Nurse, w d of course have fore- 
 seen that he must suspect Georgina to have 
 paid him the money. There is another diffi- 
 culty. Evelyn bribes Sharp to say the Codicil 
 contained 20,000^. Now all such evidence 
 w d have to be filed at Doctors' Commons. I 
 fear it could be hardly settled legally in the 
 off-hand manner Evelyn does it on the Stage. 
 Let me know these 2 points — what could be 
 s d to smooth them. I think it better to let 
 Mrs. Glover, who I hope takes the part, say 
 the line about Sir Fred to prepare for his 
 dwopping the R. 
 
 I see great difficulties in the way of chang- 
 ing the Scene for Graves & Lady F — it would 
 make the joke still more dangerous by appear- 
 C "8 J 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 ing more brought in on purpose, & I don't 
 think a Scene should change without it prac- 
 tically & absolutely forwards the Plot. But 
 would it not solve all difficulties to let the 
 whole scene from the commencement of the 
 Act to the place in Sir John's Study — & throw 
 in a word to signify that it is his study ? & 
 make it natural for Graves to be shewn there. 
 The scene itself might be a good humbug 
 scene — Parliamentary blue Book s — Great 
 Tin Boxes as if holding Title Deeds inscribed 
 "theVesey Property" — Huge sort of Bureau, 
 &c. This seems to me to smooth all difficulties. 
 Let me know. 
 
 With regard to the Club-room. Since they 
 must both, Act 3 & Act 5, be the same, it 
 must be a drawing-room — in that case Smooth 
 in Act 5 can't breakfast there, but he may 
 be munching a biscuit with a glass of sherry 
 — omit the egg. But as we may as well be 
 as accurate as we can, c d you quietly find out 
 thro' D'Orsay or any member of Crockford's 
 without saying for what purpose, whether 
 whist & piquet would be ever played in the 
 great Drawing-room at Crockford's — or in 
 some other room set apart for the purpose. If 
 it s h . d turn out to be ags! the Fundamental rules 
 of the Club to play in the great drawing-room 
 
 c »9 n 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 why we must have the legitimate card-room 
 for the scene. But if it s hd happen that — tho' 
 not frequent or customary — yet that it does 
 occasionally happen that a Table is made up 
 in the great Draw g -room, that is all we want. 
 
 I would write to some member — but I think 
 it better that they sW not guess what the 
 inquiry is for. Besides I sh d . not like to seem 
 as if I had made the Manager put Crockford's 
 on the Stage. There is no objection for him to 
 do so, but it might seem a clap-trap for me to 
 dictate it. 
 
 You surprise me about the Battledore. 
 Merely cork & feather is a good point. Is that 
 the part you object to? Will you try it again 
 in Rehearsal — & let me have an inkling how 
 you w d . have the Point turn? if you still find 
 it, don't tell. 
 
 Y? E. L. B. 
 
 LXVII 
 
 October, 1840. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 1 st. Let me thank you for telling me to see 
 
 C 120 1 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 the earlier part of Money. I saw your second 
 Act last Tuesday. It was indeed admirably 
 improved. In the scene with Graves especially. 
 I still think that, however, you w d make a 
 much greater effect in the story of the Sizar, 
 if you wound up & clenched the moral of it 
 with the few words in the text — after career 
 of a life blasted, " That is the difference be- 
 tween Rich & poor. It takes a whirlwind to 
 move the one, a breeze can uproot the other/' 
 
 2ndly . May I ask you whether the enclosed 
 refers to the Shakespeare Club you asked me 
 to enter & if there would be any objection to 
 my being a Vice-president at the Dinner. I ask 
 this because the name of the Editor of the Satir- 
 ist is in the List of Stewards — otherwise pour 
 des raisons I wish to belong to the Dinner. 
 
 3dly. Will you kindly get the Prompter to 
 copy out for me the few alterations I made 
 in "Money"? — Clara's words about the old 
 nurse. Act I, your semi-explanation with 
 Smooth, Act 3 & end of Act II, & observa- 
 tions to Graves, Act 5 — I am correcting a col- 
 lected Edition of the Plays for Press & want 
 it as soon as I can have it. 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 LXVIII 
 
 October, 1840. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I send you your last speech Act 4 corrected 
 — also the additions for Glossmore & Stout. 
 May I inquire if Power is positively engaged 
 for March when the House reopens. In that 
 case I think we could ensure the permanence 
 of the play £Money] — by altering Sir John 
 for an Irish Blarneying fellow by Power. And 
 I think I see by this a great effect for you in 
 a new 4th Act — where a scene might come in, 
 in which these 2 men have a thorough sharp 
 Wits' encounter which shall take in the other? 
 — in which there might be great fun & great 
 interest. 
 
 E. L. B. 
 I hope to hear new good news of the Invalid. 
 
 C 122 3 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 LXIX 
 
 November 8, 1840. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I cannot say how much I feel your kindness 
 in all the Labour & zeal you bestow upon the 
 Play £MoneyJ. I am sure it owes it to you 
 rather than me to succeed. — I have only just 
 got the proofs of Act 4. But hope to-morrow 
 to send you the alterations you wish in that 
 & Act 3, viz. : relative to Graves — and Sharp 
 versus tradesmen. 3 Additions to your part 
 have occurred to me. Do you like them? 
 
 Act 2. Instead of "Ay, here as easy where 
 money versus men:" " Right. Down with 
 those who take the liberty to admire any lib- 
 erty except our liberty! — That is liberty!" 
 and instead of" Both sides alike poor men" — 
 in rejoinder to Glossmore — "Right as with- 
 out Law there w* be no property. So to be a 
 Law for Property is the only proper property 
 of Law ! That is Law ! " 
 
 Again, when Sir John, speaking of Smooth, 
 Act 2, says, " An uncommonly clever fellow," 
 Evelyn may say — " Clever, yes ! when a man 
 steals a loaf we cry down the knavery ; when 
 
 I 123 3 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 a man diverts his neighbour's millstream to 
 grind his own corn, we cry up the clever- 
 ness. And every one counts Captain Dudley 
 smooth ?" You need not answer on these 
 points till you answer my next letter with the 
 other corrections. You wanted something to 
 say to Tabouret, Act 2. It can come thus: 
 "A levee as usual, good day. Ah Tabouret, 
 your designs for the Draperies (Tab shew- 
 ing Draw? ) very good, and what do you want, 
 Mr. Crimson?" 
 
 Add then afterwards, " as celebrated for vis- 
 a-vis, silver, furniture & coats/' &c. Every 
 time Stout enters he ought to be wiping his fore- 
 head . When Georgina, Act 1 , removes her arm 
 from Blount's chair, it ought to be because Sir 
 John frowns significantly & nudges her. 
 
 Wrench's dress coat may be a brown one. 
 With regard to clothes one must remember 
 that one must be always a little more dressy 
 on the stage than in real life. And velvet . . . 
 a dress. But as you fancy it. Certainly the mere 
 change of a coat will do for a club. I have 
 some little doubts of your wearing tights at 
 your dinner. It is certainly not usual in real 
 life — but a Bachelor receiving Ladies may pay 
 them that mark of civility. They love tights as 
 Dandies love flesh-coloured drawers in opera 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 Dances. Besides, it impresses & lightens a 
 good figure. The dark grey as you were for 
 having it, not too merry will do for the first 
 dress. 
 
 Y r . s ever, 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 LXX 
 
 Knebworth, 
 Monday, 
 
 November 10, 1840. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I enclose the alteration you require, & now 
 will you let me know, as well as you can, 
 what you adopt, because of the Printed Cop- 
 ies. Especially for the proofs for America, 
 which ought to go instantly. You observe that 
 this alteration, Act IV, strengthens Sharp's 
 part and makes a goodish Actor necessary. 
 Who acts it? However pressed you may be 
 for Servants, pray let Sharp speak to the two 
 — two doubles the comedy & bustle of this 
 short scene. — And it will come to the same 
 thing, since Toke may usher in Glossmore & 
 Blount. 
 
 C 12 ^ n 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 May I ask you when you write to send me 
 the cast of the Dramatis Personae as acted — 
 as I don't know who act Sharp, the Trades- 
 men, &c. I hope Macfinch's representative 
 speaks Scotch decently. Furthermore, when 
 do you think the play £ Money] will be out? 
 
 I am delighted to hear such good accounts 
 thanks to your indomitable inspirations. I'm 
 very sorry to inflict on your opprest time the 
 new burthen of an answer to these details. 
 
 Ever y r . s 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 I highly approve of your cut in the dialogue 
 between Sir John & Clara. 
 
 I still greatly dread the change of scene for 
 Graves & Lady F. But you will judge in the 
 rehearsal. 
 
 LXXI 
 
 November 13, 1840. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 A thousand thanks for all that has been done, 
 
 touching that Vitious Rice. I think it settled the 
 
 best way — if no other person can be found! 
 
 C 126 3 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 But still one's eye sh d be directed to that ob- 
 ject. Could Oxberry do it? I send you some 
 more additions for your part [Money^, the 
 first two I think you may like — I am in doubt 
 about the others — in which my object was this. 
 That as Blount, Glossmore & Stout all press 
 their bets on Evelyn, he sW strike out the 
 moral — of every nian eager after money — & 
 the additions I propose in this strengthen your 
 part perhaps , but I have great fear whether they 
 do not in the first place mar the rapidity of 
 the whole scene. Secondly whether by forcing 
 any reflection whatever upon the Audience one 
 does not stop the current of the careless laugh- 
 ter that ought to flow thro' the Scene. You will 
 consider this well & try it carefully , if you think 
 them worth trying at all. I am very anxious for 
 an answer on one point bynext post if possible. 
 You will substitute Sharp with the Trades- 
 men — Act 4 — for the scene as it stood before. 
 As that is an alteration that will unsettle the 
 types, & I must send the proofs to America 
 & no time to lose. Don't trouble yourself to 
 answer the rest, unless you like to say Yes or 
 No to the enclosed. 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 I shall be in Town Monday for a few days. 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 LXXII 
 
 Knebworth, 
 
 November* 1840. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 Do you like the following emendation for the 
 battledore — after the words "everywhere, 
 nowhere. How grave are the players, how 
 anxious the bystanders — how noisy the bat- 
 tledores. Does it signify 3 straws what 's the 
 worth of the Shuttlecock ? " — omitting perhaps 
 "Go & play by yourselves/' &c, or "How 
 grave are the players, how anxious the by- 
 standers — how noisy the battledores. A de- 
 lightful game ! What 's the worth of the Shut- 
 tlecock ! " Would you give me one word to say 
 if you like either of these two & if so which, that 
 I may copy it into the printed Play £MoneyJ. 
 I 'm ashamed to worry you so much. 
 
 I remain stolidly unconvinced about the 
 change of Scene for Graves. I think it really 
 very dangerous & awkward, & you must re- 
 member, that if this scene with the dancing & 
 the sudden entrance of Sir John &c. is too near 
 the Proscenium, all the effect must be ruined. 
 However, tho' most reluctantly, if you con- 
 
 C 128 ] 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 tinue to insist on its necessity, I must try & do 
 what you want. But really the stage is deep 
 eno' both for that & the Club. Directly I get 
 the proofs of the 4 th Act, probably tomorrow 
 or next day, I will see about the alteration 
 with Sharp & the Tradesmen. Tho' I had fan- 
 cied that Scene more effective for Evelyn than 
 the one with Glossmore & Blount, you won't 
 save much time by it. — Abandon the Prologue 
 as a thought of our Evil Genius — Phelps & 
 Webster settle that point. 
 
 I tremble for Strickland & for Lacey. How 
 do Rice & Wrench get on ? 
 Adieu. 
 
 Y r ! Ever & most obliged 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 I am better, thank you. And how is my little 
 godson? better I hope, too — sympathetically. 
 
 LXXIII 
 
 23 Bryanston St., 
 December 31, 1840. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I congratulate you heartily on the improve- 
 
 C 1Q 9 ] 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 ment of your dear boy — such news gives me 
 heartfelt delight. 
 
 So you have got the other month — I trem- 
 ble for the awful length to which Money ought 
 now to run. But as this precludes all future ex- 
 tended alterations, so we can only make the 
 present Plot as clear & tangible as possible. 
 I am glad therefore to hear that the alterations 
 succeed — especially at the end of Act 4. 1 hear 
 from many, before hypercritical, how much 
 improved the play is — a large party were 
 enchanted with you and the whole thing the 
 other night. Still the one point of Evelyn bor- 
 rowing from Sir John requires explanation & 
 the enclosed few words ( the last trouble I will 
 give you ) sets that right and will, by drawing 
 attention to your dialogue with Sir John, serve 
 perhaps to bring out some little of that Com- 
 edy which Mr. Strickland so resolutely buries. 
 As the words are so few, I hope you will for- 
 give them. 
 
 At the end of Act in your closing speech 
 will you remember to say, you "would" re- 
 fuse me io=g to spend on benevolence. Not 
 you refuse me. The would is important. 
 Y rs Ever 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 C 130 ] 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 LXXIV 
 
 1840. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I had hoped ere this to have answered in per- 
 son your letter. But I am as much oppressed 
 by my business as you by yours, & there- 
 fore sit down to tell you fairly & shortly my 
 views as to any aid I can give you. Putting 
 compliment on one side & modesty on the 
 other apart, I believe that I could be more 
 useful than most other writers, & that a play 
 of mine, if successful, would draw more than 
 one of equal merit from Authors less known, 
 or more hacknied in Stage Experience. But it 
 would be idle to hope anything from me, un- 
 less you can find the leisure, to suggest and 
 Chalk out your general suggestion of the sub- 
 ject — I cannot afford the time which may be 
 wasted by writing, as it were in the dark, & 
 you would perhaps count in vain upon assist- 
 ance, which an ill-chosen subject would ren- 
 der a vain xpectation. 
 
 To speak frankly — no play can pay me in 
 a pecuniary sense. For the least time it takes 
 is about half the time of a Novel. The utmost 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 pay it can receive is not half the profit derived 
 from a fiction. 
 
 I might fairly value my time in the Last 
 play I wrote for you — & which you thought 
 hazardous — at 6 or =£700. Now, I have not 
 the least desire to make money the prominent 
 object either in Dramatic or any other com- 
 position — less in the Drama while you are at 
 its head than any other, but I cannot wholly 
 omit its consideration. — I shall be delighted 
 to write you a play upon a subject you sug- 
 gest & think good, & leave the profits, in 
 much, dependent on the run. — But it injures 
 me, without serving you — to devote thought, 
 time & toil to Vague experiments on which you 
 cannot depend foryour calculations, &c.There- 
 fore, in brief, give me your subject & I will do 
 the best I can — if not, "Sparta hath many a 
 worthier son" & Forster will, no doubt, hunt 
 him out for you, a Landor or a Tennyson of 
 the Drama. 
 
 I am afraid you will think this letter some- 
 what brusque, but I hope at all events it will 
 not offend you, & that you will clearly see that 
 my sole wish is simply to put before you the 
 real question. I am not fond of Dramatic com- 
 position. For no other man living with my 
 present views & occupations would I write a 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 play — unless greatly tempted & encouraged: 
 I am willing to make any sacrifice of time or 
 profit to serve you. — But then, I want to be 
 assured that the sacrifice does serve you, or 
 I lack heart and inspiration. 
 
 Y r f most truly 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 LXXV 
 
 Knebworth, 
 
 Stevenage, Herts, 
 1840. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I have thought over your idea of blending The 
 Illomened Marriage and the French Comedy 
 — but cannot see my way to it. — The grave 
 and comic do not seem to me to harmonize in 
 it. If you have leisure for any ideas of the plot 
 and Acts, pray chalk out your notion of the 
 outline. 
 
 I should however much prefer a direct Com- 
 edy — or a direct tragedy — to a mixed play — 
 and after allThe Illomened Marriage must have 
 the same interest as The Lady of Lyons — & 
 
 C 133 ] 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 Novelty w d be wanting.— I have a superb sub- 
 ject for a Tragedy — if I can make you see it. 
 "Warwick, the King maker — the last of the 
 English Barons/' I am finishing a romance on 
 the subject, but I should treat it so differently 
 as a Tragedy that that would not signify. 
 
 The Plot is full of domestic interest — al- 
 most as strong as Venice preserved. Judge for 
 yourself. Warwick, the last & mightiest of the 
 English Barons, has dethroned Henry 6 & 
 placed Edward IV on the throne. — He loves 
 Edward as a son, & wishes Edward to marry 
 his dau'r, Isabel — but the King has chosen 
 Elizabeth Woodville. Warwick, tho' disap- 
 pointed, takes it well. He is sent by Edward 
 on a solemn Embassy to Lewis XI to betroth 
 Edward's sister to Lewis's son — meanwhile 
 the Queen, who hates Warwick, has put on 
 him a grievous insult, by persuading Edward 
 to give his sister to Charles the Bold of Bur- 
 gundy. — Play opens during Warwick's ab- 
 sence. He returns to find himself juggled. A 
 powerful and stormy scene with the King — 
 they quarrel. When Warwick leaves Edward 
 the disaffected Barons come to offer Warwick 
 ( who is a Plantagenet ) the throne ; he refuses 
 — partly thro' pride (he is an aristocrat who 
 looks down on a King) — partly thro' love to 
 C J S4 j 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 Edw d & nobleness of soul. In the second act 
 Warwick & the King are reconciled, & War- 
 wick's daughter Isabel is to be married to Ed- 
 ward's brother the Duke of Clarence — but 
 when Edward sees Isabel, w 7 ho is wonder- 
 fully improved in beauty since he preferred 
 Elizabeth Woodville, he falls in love with her 
 & forbids the marriage with Clarence — finally 
 he offers violence to Isabel — Warwick discov- 
 ers it — his feelings. What! his daughter to be 
 the King's harlot and M r f Elizabeth Woodville 
 the King's Queen! This drives him to rebel- 
 lion — powerful scene with Margaret of Anjou 
 and Henry 6th whom he had dethroned and 
 whom he now would restore. He does restore 
 Henry 6th, and Edward is driven from the 
 country. Warwick is now at the height of 
 power. His daughter is married to Clarence. 
 But Clarence is discontented and listens to 
 the intrigues of Edward to desert Warwick — 
 Isabel placed between the contending duty to 
 Father and husband. Edward lands, marches 
 to London, and Clarence deserts with all his 
 troops to him. The eve of the Battle of Bar- 
 net. Scene Warwick & his Daughter Isabel 
 — & the final catastrophe of Warwick's death 
 in the Battle. I have very roughly chalked it 
 out — but I think it capable of strong domestic 
 C !35 ] 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 interest, while Warwick's character is very 
 grand and absorbing — and a bold picture of 
 the times may be given. This is the best tra- 
 gic subject I can think of, but a pure comedy 
 w d be more popular if a thesis could be found. 
 — But I have only to repeat that unless you 
 could give me a subject, I shall never chance 
 on one. 
 
 With regard to The Lady of Lyons. — Itwas 
 only acted once as an after-piece — the night 
 of Kean's benefit. I wrote to remonstrate with 
 Webster immediately, & I don't think it can 
 happen again. — I cannot agree with you that 
 it should be laid aside a season, tho' I think it 
 need not appear in the commencement. Would 
 ioo=g for it — for the next season after it falls 
 due to me which is not until January — be too 
 much? It certainly will be — unless you think 
 of running it altogether from 10 to 20 nights. 
 I have no scruple therefore in treating this 
 wholly as a matter of business. 
 
 I really wish you could give me a comedy 
 — for I should be most unfeignedly happy to 
 aid your great experiment. — But I have no in- 
 vention in plots — & a House must be founded 
 before it can be built. Not a word of all this 
 to Forster. 
 
 Warwick's death is affecting — Edward & 
 
 c 136 3 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 Clarence sent to offer him terms and pardon 
 if he would dismiss his army. His answer was 
 full of lofty disdain & galled feeling. His bro- 
 ther Lord Montague & he killed their horses 
 to fight on foot — in sign that they would con- 
 quer or die — embraced & fell fighting side 
 by side. 
 
 y: 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 LXXVI 
 
 January, 1841. 
 
 My dear* Macready: 
 
 I have rec'd yours on my return to Fulham. 
 Alas, I cannot find any idea for what you de- 
 sire. One indeed occurs to me which I fancy 
 you would find invaluable as a Manager. But 
 as an Actor you would not be wanted. Start not 
 when I tell you the idea. Tieck wrote in Ger- 
 man a satirical play on Puss in Boots — it had 
 immense success. This is my idea! — 3 Acts 
 in rhyme like Bombastes Furioso with songs 
 — a sort of Beggars' Opera — full of allusions 
 to the Present Day. I am sure I could make it 
 I 137 ] 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 witty. Aristophanes in his Birds will give you 
 the idea of what I mean. The play to open 
 with the Millers. Fancy their conversation 
 on the Corn Laws! — Then think of the quiz 
 on Charlatanism in the Marquis de Carabas 
 seizing other people's property as his own. I 
 propose a chorus of Rats — Radicals, whom 
 Puss treats with great disdain. I shall introduce 
 Homoeopathy — Magnetism — the Press — the 
 House of Commons — Everything. Puss Miss 
 Martin could do. The Marquis de Carabas w d 
 be a fine part ! I am serious ! I think I see some- 
 thing all the Town would run after & might 
 alternate your grave plays. Celeste would be 
 the proper cat since Jenny Vertpre is not to 
 be had. But suppose we don't engage Celeste. 
 It must be anonymous — full of travesties & 
 burlesques. What say you? This is for your 
 own thought alone. Don't mention it even to 
 Forster. 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 I will read Sheridan's Remains. 
 
 C 138 3 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 LXXVII 
 
 January 7, 1841. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I am delighted that you prefer Cromwell — 
 the other tho' containing a good character 
 wanted lightness & brilliancy for a Comedy. 
 In Cromwell, however, there are immense dif- 
 ficulties which with time, thought & patience 
 may be overcome. Those difficulties are the 
 Creation of strong interest. I send you a rough 
 sketch — Act 4 in it is the weakest. It would 
 not do to begin till one has thoroughly ma- 
 tured the Plot — & got one clear, living, per- 
 vading interest. At present that connected with 
 the daughter is not domestic eno', & her con- 
 nection with Vane is too shadowy & subtle. 
 Can we devise anything closer? Act 1 . 3. & 5 
 as sent would have strong effect, but the per- 
 vading interest of the whole is wanting. 
 
 Shakespeare alone & he perhaps scarcely 
 in the present day, can make History without 
 love have universal & warm interest. Here, if 
 we can connect a strong interest in the power 
 & struggles of the . . . with some absolute 
 tale or sympathy from first to last of the Dra- 
 
 C *S9 D 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 matic kind — these should do very well. But 
 the last is necessary . See well if from the Chaos 
 I send anything can be struck & the cords 
 round the heart drawn tighter. If not — it is best 
 to abandon this Historical view altogether — 
 & perhaps conceive a new plot of the time dis- 
 tinct from History — in which Cromwell may 
 appear as an Agent, but not embracing his 
 death or his great historical struggles. — Riche- 
 lieu is somewhat done in this way, tho' there 
 the story happily connects him with real events 
 & characters, & we have an absolute Episode 
 in his life (in the packet) to work on — & this 
 made the Art & Success of the play: — I could 
 not commence this till I saw all the scenes 
 before me like a map. I shall hope to hear the 
 best possible news of the poor little patient. I 
 have ordered Saunders to send Mrs. Macready 
 a copy of my novel. With kind regards to her 
 and Miss Macready & best & most heartfelt 
 wishes for the season believe me 
 
 Most truly y r f 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 Are the Houses very bad? 
 
 I have no copy of the enclosed. Could the 
 Hay market have the mise en scene of Acts 3 & 
 4? If I had "a Fool/' who could act it — Miss 
 Horton would remind the audience too much 
 
 C !40 ^ 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 of the Fool in Lear — tho' the character would 
 be very different. Besides, my Fool would have 
 strong biting power. He ought to be deformed 
 & have a hump. He is a dog that snarls & 
 bites — but has a Dog's heart full of love for his 
 Master. I know if I could get the actor, that I 
 could make him most effective to Cromwell. 
 But there is not a man I can think of, to be 
 both pathetic & humorous. 
 
 Could Miss Horton be made to do? 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 LXXVIII 
 
 March, 1841. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 Lady Morgan shewed the same design you 
 so kindly sent me & I admired it extremely, 
 so that I am peculiarly delighted to receive the 
 drawing which I shall highly prize, nor the 
 less so from having seen, I believe, the young 
 Lady — with whose handsome face I was much 
 struck. Pray present to her my best thanks, 
 
 I 141 ] 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 & my sincere appreciation of the Compliment 
 with which she has distinguished my work. 
 
 I shall be most happy to dine with you, & 
 hear your news which I hope turns on D. r Lane. 
 I saw L d Lansdowne last night who s* he had 
 fixed tomorrow for our Committee on Mrs. 
 Siddons &c. — but c d . not tell me the place or 
 Hour. 
 
 Will you let me know ? 
 
 Y: 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 LXXIX 
 
 105 Piccadilly. 
 June, 1841. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 It is, I find, quite hopeless to attempt getting 
 yf brother under the gallery during the Want 
 of Confidence discussion. Every place has been 
 bespoken many days & you know that the 
 accommodation for strangers is considerably 
 curtailed this year. But I enclose him an order 
 for the gallery, where, if he go early, he will 
 be just as well off. I have left the date blank, 
 & he may fill it up either for Tuesday or 
 
 C 142 3 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 Thursday ( I have given away my order for 
 Wednesday ). If the debate last 3 days, Thurs- 
 day will be the best day. 
 
 Y r 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 LXXX 
 
 July 24, 1 841. 
 
 My dear Macready : 
 
 I regret much that being absent from Town 
 I cannot at present enjoy the opportunity of 
 being introduced to M r . s Adams. 
 
 I am shifting about at present from place to 
 place — deep in Aristophanes & therefore little 
 likely to be of any use. What a wonderful 
 rascal he is. 
 
 Yours ever 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 Brighton — Friday 
 
 My permanent address is always Fulham. 
 
 I have read L'Ambitieux. Is it not sad stuff? 
 Pray tell Forster, apropos of stuff, that his cri- 
 tique made me read Miss Sedgwick's book, Le 
 
 C 143 ] 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 Scelerat! Her book is not only waste paper, 
 but what is worse — it ought only to be used 
 as such — by Rogers! 
 
 LXXXI 
 
 Margate, 
 Sunday, 
 
 August 9, 1 84 1. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 Forster told me you w? write to me about 
 stratagems & plots. But your libido tacendi 
 rivals that of the Philosopher in Juvenal. 
 
 My researches on Athenian manners are 
 carrying me thro' the whole range of antient 
 comedy. Thereis nothing — but occasional wit- 
 ticisms to be gleaned from Aristophanes — but 
 I have just concluded the 6 Plays of Terence, 
 observing what Steele has made from the 
 Andrea in the Conscious Lovers. — I can't help 
 thinking that a field is yet open. Phormio is 
 capital, but there is no principal part for a high 
 Comedian. What think you of the Heauton- 
 timoroumenos ? It seems to me that something 
 very striking might be adapted from that idea 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 — provided one could restore Menedemusthat 
 weight & passion which he must evidently 
 have had in the original of Menander. Just 
 see the opening where he is described. How 
 fine a picture it is — the old man pinching & 
 slaving himself for his Son. In a modern para- 
 phrase he might be drawn not of course as 
 a penurious agriculturist, but a tricky mer- 
 chant — seemingly a miser — all from the 
 same passion — love & penitence about his 
 son. 
 
 The Courtezan, or rather hetaera Bacchis, 
 would be a gay, dashing, extravagant widow, 
 whose finery & expenses when introduced at 
 the House of Chremes would be very droll. 
 Chremes might be made a vain, curious, 
 medling fellow — always thinking himself wise 
 & always taken in — the Slave Tyrus should 
 not be a servant ( for that is really foreign to 
 our manners ) but a friend to the 2 young men, 
 & might be made very droll & effective. But 
 the difficulty is how to draw out Menedemus. 
 He is a mere shadow in Terence & ought to 
 be your Part. If you have time, just think of 
 this. I shall go thro* Plautus by & by. But I 
 have him not here. Are there any of his com- 
 edies you could suggest? There are plenty 
 of them. — Why won't you have Richelieu 
 
 C 145 n 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 again ? I would not have let Webster have it to 
 lay on the shelf. Shall I write to him? 
 Adieu 
 
 y: 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 This is a most Enchanting Place — the Naples 
 of England. 
 
 LXXXII 
 
 Margate, 
 
 Wednesday, 
 
 August 12, 1 84 1. 
 
 My dear Macready : 
 
 Many thanks for your note forwarded from 
 Craven Cottage. I am delighted to find you 
 have some notions about Walpole. — By far the 
 best subject if the story can be made to inter- 
 est. — I shall be in Town to-morrow & will 
 look in at the Hay market after the play to see 
 you. 
 
 Perhaps you can then give me your rough 
 ideas of Walpole. I shall be but few days in 
 town. 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 C 146 3 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 LXXXIII 
 
 October 25, 1841. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I will dine with you on Friday with pleasure 
 at 6 o'clock. With regard to the Comedy, I feel 
 sure that I cannot see my way to it merely 
 thro' the moral purpose w h you so well indi- 
 cate. What I want more is a view of the more 
 physical progress of Plot as in the outline you 
 suggested of Money. There I saw at once the 
 effective scenes of the opening of the will — 
 of the supposed reverse — & the domestic sit- 
 uation of Clara & Evelyn. In the play you sug- 
 gest I see no scenes — & little comic situation 
 — & I fear the Dialogue would be too much 
 mixed with the politics of the day. What I 
 should like most would be a Poetic Comedy 
 that is a mixture of prose & blank verse as 
 in The Lady of Lyons. With comic situations 
 in Acts 1, 2, & 4 & grave in Acts 3 & 5 — I 
 have so great an indisposition at this moment 
 towards playwriting, that unless I can hit on 
 something that would attract my fancy & ex- 
 cite enthusiasm, I fear I shall never get on. 
 I like the idea of glory. But beyond this idea 
 
 C 147 J 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 all seems to me cloud & darkness. — The oper- 
 atic play I wished to point out to you is Robin 
 Hood — the story might be made wild, inter- 
 esting &yet lively & comic at times. The scene 
 & name are National & it has this one great 
 advantage, that it would incorporate the early 
 English National music lately published by 
 Chapel. Thus it might be made a National 
 Opera, without borrowing a single foreign 
 air. — Think over this. 
 
 Y r . s truly 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 Puss in boots can't take a step. His boots are 
 not 7 league ones. 
 
 LXXXIV 
 
 9 Pall Mall East, 
 Saturday, 
 
 November, 1841. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 When do you come to town ? I am delighted 
 
 at what I hear of your prospects at Drury 
 
 Lane. 
 
 Being seized with a profound disgust of both 
 
 C 148 ] 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 parties in politics — with the one for playing 
 at fast & loose with the Credit and Finances 
 of the Country, by daring as responsible min- 
 isters to leave them at the uncertain mercy of 
 the 3 Party cries they call a Budget, & with 
 the other side for not being either good eno' 
 to support or bad eno* to excuse all measures 
 that tend to keep them out — I turn once more 
 to the Fair Life of the Ideal. Have you any idea 
 for me? Will you give me any story or sketch 
 for "The Public" A comedy — with Walpole 
 for the hero ? I am thinking of the experiment 
 of a comedy in verse ( Hexameter ) . Start not ! 
 I think I see my way to great effects in it. It is 
 the very diction for epigram & wit & its sud- 
 denness as presented by an unexpected rhyme 
 is dramatic & histrionic. But it would require 
 rather an Artificial period like Walpole's and 
 must be only adapted to the very highest school 
 of Comedy. Give me a human interest & a good 
 plot, and I promise you something sterling in 
 that way. But I have no dramatic invention. 
 
 What a delightful book is Fleury's Me- 
 moirs The French Stage ! It is the Gil Bias of 
 Biography. 
 
 Adieu 
 
 Y r . 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 C 149 ] 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 LXXXV 
 
 Fulham, 
 Monday, 
 
 February, 1842. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 You, I am sure, will never impute to want of 
 interest in your success that abstinence from 
 the enjoyment of the Acis & Galatea & Gi- 
 sippus, with which you kindly reproach me. 
 Their complete triumph leaves me so easy on 
 your account, that I repose under your laurels, 
 and the vis inertiae which in this retreat weighs 
 upon me of an evening, has kept me from all 
 engagements I can avoid. — Moreover I have 
 had a great accumulation of business etc., but 
 I still hope to see both among my earliest 
 recreations. And had either been doubtful, 
 my anxiety would have carried me to the scene 
 of treat long ago. In respect to anything from 
 myself I roused my muse from an aversion 
 She has taken to further Dramatic composi- 
 tion, & essayed a Comedy, of which about one 
 Act was composed when, tho' pretty good, I 
 perceived it would not be striking & spark- 
 ling eno', & dropped it. Since then I have often 
 tried to invent a subject but in vain. I am sure, 
 
 C 150 ] 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 however, that whenever your resources fail 
 you, my zeal for you would refresh my inven- 
 tion. But you seem so richly provided for, & 
 the literary Ambition of Authors is so much 
 directed now towards the story, that I do not 
 feel any spur towards an effort which could 
 but substitute one play for some other just as 
 likely to succeed. I wrote first for the stage 
 with the desire to set an example to others, 
 & to serve you personally. Both these objects 
 gained — my Fountain seems dried up, & its 
 Nymph departed. 
 
 Howbeit, whenever you or my own read- 
 ing suggests a subject likely to be brilliant you 
 will, no doubt, revive the old impulses. Mean- 
 while I sympathize in the success of others 
 & rejoice in the prosperity you so richly de- 
 serve. 
 
 Ever 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 C *5i J 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 LXXXVI 
 
 Craven Cottage, 
 
 February 24, 1842. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I & Forster are going to see Gisippus Mon- 
 day & will look in on you afterwards — when 
 if you think anything of my idea, I shall be 
 happy to dine with you some day of your fix- 
 ing & discuss it. 
 
 Ever y T . in haste 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 LXXXVII 
 
 St. James's, 
 Charles St., 
 Thursday, 
 
 April 22, 1842. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I cannot tell you how grieved, sincerely and 
 heartily, I am at the account I read this morn- 
 ing, of thereception of" Plighted Troth." Tho' 
 I never read the play, the outline of the story 
 
 C 152 ] 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 struck me as one of prodigious power, and the 
 extract you read, convinced me of the pres- 
 ence of a thoro' and genuine Poet. I hope you 
 will try it on, and that it may recover the 
 effect of the First Night & I shall I trust be at 
 the Theatre this Evening to judge for myself. 
 Should I not see you, will you kindly do me 
 the favour to say to the Author on my part, 
 whatever you think may be received as the 
 language of sympathy and encouragement. If 
 I might venture allusion to myself, I would re- 
 mind him of the fate of my best literary play, 
 La Valliere — which did not present sufficient 
 success on succeeding attempts to cheer on 
 a man like the Author of Plighted Troth, in 
 a path where he is, I am sure, able to achieve 
 no ordinary triumphs. 
 
 Ever yours truly 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 Since writing the above I have been to D' 
 Lane & was disappointed to find the play put 
 off. 
 
 C 153 H 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 LXXXVIII 
 
 April 26, 1842. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 It would be ungrateful not to inform you of 
 the success of your Costume.* It went off with 
 real eclat. I flatter myself that the accessories 
 tended to heighten the effect. In especial I made 
 a great feature of the sword, for judging the 
 handle too rugged for the dress, I availed my- 
 self of a picture of the time to veil it in sword 
 knots & drapery of Gold Lace round which 
 was wreathed a chain of large Emeralds. I also 
 took your hint about the chain for the cap, 
 which was very good. I found the addition of 
 a white & gold Embroidered Scarf with dia- 
 monds in the loop so effective that I recommend 
 it to you for the stage. 
 
 So much for the reception of the Dress. 
 I shall send it the first day I come to town, to 
 Drury Lane & will youkindly desire the Tailor 
 as I do not know his address, to send me in the 
 acct. 
 
 Y r . s truly 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 * Bulwer borrowed the costume of Ruthven in Mary Stuart from Mac- 
 ready for the Queen's fancy dress ball. 
 
 C 154 3 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 Since writing the above I have received a re- 
 quest to sit for a portrait in the dress. May 
 I keep it a little time longer or shall you want 
 it? — if the latter, perhaps you can lend it after 
 your Season. 
 
 LXXXIX 
 
 Knebworth, 
 Tuesday, 
 
 July 19, 1842. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 Tho' I do not think that Tragedy is to be esti- 
 mated in its necessary attractions by the in- 
 stances you would refer to, & I believe that a 
 modern "Venice preserved " well acted would 
 produce immense sensation & a continuous run , 
 yet you say eno' on that subject to silence any 
 suggestions of mine thereon. But with regard 
 to Warwick I must set you right as to an error 
 you seem to have made. The outline I gave 
 you is precisely & literally according to the 
 true History. 
 
 The old notion that Warwick's quarrel with 
 Edward was about the Princess Bona of Savoy 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 — as recorded by Hume, whose history of that 
 reign is the very worst part of his work — 
 is unanimously set aside by better Historians. 
 The dispute arose, as I stated, in the marriage 
 of Edward's Sister to the D. of Burgundy — 
 despite the embassy of Warwick to France, & 
 was finally ripened by an attempt of Edward 
 on a female relation of Warwick's. ( See Hall's 
 Chronicle. ) This girl was supposed to be Isa- 
 bel married to Clarence. But that could not be, 
 for she was already wed to Clarence & not at 
 the Court. It must either have been Anne or a 
 niece of Warwick's — daughter to his brother 
 Montagu. I have adhered exactly to the true 
 History. The introduction of Shakespeare's 
 very poor Sketch of Warwick, which has not 
 a single trait of character, I think very imma- 
 terial. The splendour, the pride, the frankness, 
 the passion of the stout Earl, ought to make 
 a very distinct Portraiture. And the extreme 
 love he had at first to Edward, succeeded by 
 so fierce a hate, might be eminently touching. 
 But, as this subject must be all buskin — high 
 & gorgeous Tragedy alone, having thus vin- 
 dicated my Historical accuracy — I leave it 
 among the Embryos. 
 
 I meant to say zyear for The Lady of Lyons, 
 that is from January 1 5 th to January 1 5 th 
 £ 156 J 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 The sole thing left to think on is a pure 
 comedy that might have some touches of pathos 
 allied with humour. 
 
 Waste no time on The Illomened Marriage. 
 What I feel about the success of any play of 
 mine is this: — that, if it does succeed, its run 
 would be greater than that of any less known 
 writer (there being a prestige in these mat- 
 ters) whose work had equal merit. But that 
 if it fail, its failure would be more complete. 
 And in this — all depends upon the concep- 
 tion or plot. I have no fear as to the execution 
 of the Play, provided the subject is popular & 
 original. And so the Muses inspire your in- 
 vention. 
 
 Truly y r . s 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 xc 
 
 6 Hertford St., 
 May fair, 
 
 February 22, 1843. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 Will you send me au plutot Dumas' Comedy 
 
 c 157 1 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 Marriage sous Louis XV which I lent you. 
 In, I think, Act II, there is a scene I propose 
 to borrow from — where the Husband finding 
 the Lover & wife, tells them his position, & 
 when one of them asks him — What did the 
 Husband do — answers, "took up his hat & 
 left them." Do you think you could make much 
 of that position, if so I propose to place it in 
 Act II of my own play. I am getting on, but 
 have rewritten over & over again. However 
 I hope in about 10 days to have a considera- 
 ble portion to shew you. I think I see 2 very 
 strong positions Acts 3 & 4- Some pleasant 
 comedy — & a character for you, that tho' not 
 very remarkable in itself, will carry the gen- 
 eral sympathy with it & from its position have 
 scope for fine acting — My eye is on Stage 
 success as I write. 
 
 I expect there will be 2 capital parts for 
 Keeley & Miss Faucit. 
 
 Y? truly 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 Just returned from Brighton. 1000 thanks for 
 your kind inquiries. 
 
 C 158 1 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 XCI 
 
 Craven Cottage, 
 Fulham, 
 
 April 5, 1843. 
 
 My dear M.: 
 
 I send you the 4 Acts, if they don't do, the 
 5* will be useless; if they do, the 5 l . h must be 
 well talked over. 
 
 The title I suggested will hardly suit. 
 Let me know your opinion au plutot. 
 
 Y! 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 xcn 
 
 Craven Cottage, 
 Tuesday, 
 
 1843. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I am unfortunately obliged to ask you to ex- 
 cuse me on Saturday. I had calculated on re- 
 turning from a visit to Lord Cowper's on Fri- 
 day, but I have just had a letter that renders 
 C i&9 ] 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 it uncertain whether I shall not be positively 
 obliged to stay over Saturday. So that it will 
 be better to defer our Meeting till some, I trust, 
 very Early opportunity. As it was to be a tete- 
 a-tete or nearly so, I have the less scruple in 
 drawing on your Indulgence. 
 
 Yours most truly 
 
 E. L. B. 
 
 xcin 
 
 Great Malvern, 
 Worcestershire, 
 June 29, 1844. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 Your kind letter gave me real pleasure, per- 
 haps the more so because I had given up all 
 hope of hearing from you. You greatly indeed 
 underrate my interest in your career, if you 
 suppose that under any circumstances I should 
 not have been unfeignedly glad to hear from 
 yourself, some account not only of your tri- 
 umph, the fame of which finds other trum- 
 peters, but of your health and prospects ; your 
 views of the United States are such as I should 
 
 1 160 : 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 have predicted. O'Connell once tauntingly 
 complained that his conduct in struggling for 
 a great people was viewed with the eye of a 
 Master of the Ceremonies. With more justice 
 may the young Titan of a Republic complain 
 that almost every tourist has spoken of it in the 
 mincing criticism with which a Dancing Mas- 
 ter might favour the Farnese Hercules. They 
 cannot screw its vigorous feet forever on the 
 upward way into the affected grace of the 5th 
 position. The last thing into which a manly 
 & intelligent observer in examining America 
 should search is the outward conventionality. 
 He must mass together all the large facts con- 
 nected with the greatest experiment in Gov- 
 ernment, since Greece shook off her brilliant 
 tyrannies, and solve the problems of her sur- 
 passing energy — her public spirit — & her 
 rushing progress. Of manners the English- 
 man is usually the most prejudiced judge. If 
 he prefers his own to the Frenchman's, it is no 
 wonder that he is vulgarly sensitive to vul- 
 garity in the American. The wonder rather is 
 that in a People without a court, without an 
 idle Aristocracy, engaged thro' all its classes 
 in anxious commerce &the rough strife of per- 
 sonal interest and political passions — the won- 
 der rather is, that so much civility to strangers, 
 
 C 16O 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 so much courtesy to women, so forbearing 
 an usage of legal equality — are the character- 
 istics of the Population. The only points in 
 which it appears to me the Americans are fairly 
 exposed to censure are in their capricious and 
 uncertain morality, which so often sinks char- 
 acter in success — their indulgence to "a smart 
 man/' & in that debasing appetite for slander 
 & abuse without which their Press would long 
 since have been reformed. The last has always 
 been the character of Democracies — & doubt- 
 less the worst American paper is less calumni- 
 ous than Aristophanes — the former is perhaps 
 also a necessary consequence of the Trading 
 spirit. By degrees the Americans may purify 
 themselves of these blots, but in gaining 
 some of the good qualities of an old coun- 
 try, they may lose much of the vigorous attri- 
 butes of a new. Your letter which arrived two 
 days ago, finds me under the Hydropathic 
 Treatment. My painful & intense anxiety for 
 some months, ending in the crushing grief, 
 for the loss of my nearest & dearest friend, 
 seemed to shatter into pieces a constitution 
 never very robust. At last, finding all other 
 means in vain, I came hither — anticipating 
 more benefit from an entire and abrupt change 
 of all my habits, than from the salutary tor- 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 tures of wet sheets & mountainous blankets. 
 Whether from the one or the other cause, I 
 have derived great benefit from the water cure 
 — tho' as yet in my novitiate I have been less 
 than 3 weeks, & propose staying another 
 month. — Some time in September I shall go 
 abroad for the winter. But I hope to shake you 
 by the hand with a hearty welcome before I 
 depart. — All theatrical news you have doubt- 
 less rec* from Forster & others, better versed 
 in the Mimic world than I am. — I began at 
 St. Leonards something for your return, but 
 spirits & subject failed together. My idea was 
 Harold, the last Saxon King, and I still think 
 a most striking & impressive Drama might be 
 worked out from his History & his Saxon qual- 
 ities, by one quite up to the work. Which I am 
 not. I heard somewhere that you were likely 
 to go to Paris. Is it so? — I have lived quite 
 out of the world for many months, & have 
 nothing to communicate of its toil & turmoil. 
 The Americans are never likely, I suspect, to 
 find me upon their shores. The report circu- 
 lated in their newspapers is without founda- 
 tion. Me, the New World with its active hopes, 
 has ceased to allure tho' not to interest. — I 
 love more the holy day indolence, & dreamy 
 reserves which the contemplation of States 
 C 163 ] 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 in which the Volcano is expended serves to 
 nourish. At certain stages of life the Past has 
 more delight for us than the Future. The crea- 
 tive Faculty, which is one with the true ideal, 
 does not invent — it only re-creates. What can 
 the imagination do to present before us and 
 clothe with living interest the generations that 
 may hereafter people the Alabona? But the 
 Poet & the Artist find their element in things 
 that have been, & in Egypt, Greece, & Italy 
 — we can bid the Dead live again. While we 
 are practical men, Oeconomists, & Politicians, 
 America attracts us when we sink back into the 
 second youth of Idealism — we prefer the old 
 Titans to the new. — Adieu my dear Macready. 
 
 Vive, vale sis memor mei. 
 
 E. B. L. 
 
 xciv 
 
 Knebworth, 
 October 7, 1845, 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I am truly glad that your letter has served to 
 
 remove any incomprehensible misunderstand- 
 
 C 164 3 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 ing between us. In this Shallow Stream of life, 
 there are constantly weeds and stones which 
 fret the surface — we do well not to interrupt 
 & chafe the current by hindrances of our own. 
 Believe me I have never ceased for a moment 
 to admire & esteem you — to value your friend- 
 ship & feel a lively interest in your fortunes & 
 career. I rejoice that you are going to appear 
 again in Town. With you rests our Drama — & 
 better things may come out of your return to 
 us. With kindest regards to Mrs. Macready 
 Most truly y r . s 
 
 E. B. Lytton. 
 
 xcv 
 
 36 Hertford St., 
 December 6, 1845. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I called on you coming to town en route for 
 Paris, & had the mortification to find you flown 
 to Dublin. I wanted more especially a word or 
 two with you on Dramatic subjects. 
 
 I shall have some leisure on my hands dur- 
 ing my stay abroad, and if it can be employed 
 C 165 3 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 with any advantage to you — the profit thereof 
 will be doubly agreeable to myself. I have 
 long had a belief that Sophocles almost purely 
 & entirely in his own classic simplicity may be 
 put on the stage. 
 
 And the success of Antigone confirms my 
 notion. What say you to the Oedipus (Ty- 
 rannus). 
 
 It was always the great histrionic part on the 
 Athenian Stage, & is the most thrilling of the 
 Greek Dramas, & I fancy it will succeed with 
 us. Not a french Oedipe — but the old Drama, 
 with Chorus & all as in the Antigone. In many 
 parts literally translated, but in verse — and in 
 short the original as much adhered to as pos- 
 sible. It will require the adjunct of fine music, 
 but that can be obtained, either from English 
 or German composers. I would not begin it, 
 it is true, unless you see, which you probably 
 do not, your way to purchase & represent it 
 — unless indeed it were a partial engagement 
 to purchase it — tho I should be quite willing 
 in your case to let half the purchase money be 
 contingent on the run as it is an experiment 
 to both. 
 
 I leave England on Wednesday after Post 
 time. There is great time for me to have a 
 yes or no, and if the former to look out the 
 C 166 ] 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 necessary books to take with me. — If it does 
 not press you too much to answer this by 
 return of Post. 
 
 If you don't write so immediately, you must 
 then direct Poste restante Paris. Concluding 
 the business part of the arrangement, suppos- 
 ing the price be 600 =£. I should be satisfied 
 with half on completing the Drama — & the 
 rest according to the run. If you dislike this 
 idea, I own I have no other in my head but 
 should be happy to receive any hints. 
 
 What are your plans and projects? I hear 
 nothing of them. 
 
 Adieu 
 
 Most truly y rs 
 
 E. B. L. 
 
 XCVI 
 
 Rome, 
 
 March 3, 1846. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 Many thanks for your kind & friendly note 
 which I have only just received & which I 
 answer in haste. 
 
 C 167 ] 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 I was not aware of the groundless rumour 
 you mention, — as I seldom see a paper & it 
 was not alluded to in my letters from Eng- 
 land. Except in one from Forster who im- 
 plied rather his own suspicion — than men- 
 tioned any serious report. I have only seen 
 the first part of the New Timon which was 
 sent to me a day or two before I left Eng- 
 land — but since your letter implies that it is 
 no very creditable production, I am at a loss 
 to know why Forster should pay me so bad 
 a compliment. — Long eno', I dare say, before 
 one's friends would suspect one of anything 
 good! — I should feel much obliged if you 
 would use my distinct & most positive author- 
 ization to contradict the report, wherever you 
 deem it necessary. I wrote to Forster some 
 time ago about my adaptation of the Oedipus, 
 Mercadante having promised to write the 
 music for the Choruses etc. — But I conclude 
 from your letter, that you are not in a condi- 
 tion to think of such matters. 
 
 I am most truly concerned for the State of 
 the Stage in England — & for your own im- 
 perfect connexion with it at this moment. — 
 It is a disgrace to the Country that things 
 should be so. 
 
 On my return to England I shall try & see 
 C 168 ] 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 you & discuss matters — I have an idea that 
 a Company of gentlemen would agree in tak- 
 ing a suitable Theatre & placing it at your 
 disposal — I should have little fear of the risk. 
 
 Nous en parlerons — 
 
 I came to Italy in a vague half-formed no- 
 tion of selecting one of its cities for an habit- 
 ual winter residence. I dismiss that illusion, 
 my second visit has cured me of the enervat- 
 ing effects of the First. 
 
 I hope to be in London in little more than 
 a month. With kindest regards to Mrs. Mac- 
 ready, 
 
 Adieu. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 
 E. B. Lytton. 
 
 xcvn 
 
 19 James St., 
 Saturday, 
 
 May 24, 1846. 
 
 My dear M. 
 
 I congratulate you heartily on your new tri- 
 umph in The King of the Commons which I 
 shall come to see next week. I have been 
 i: 16 9 3 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 wanting to get to you, but cruel business and 
 much absence from Town have prevented it. 
 — Forster has my Oedipus, & I wish much 
 that you should see it as soon as you can, for I 
 have little doubt that the great success of the 
 same attempt at Berlin will add to the effect of 
 the Play if brought out forthwith, while if there 
 is much delay, we shall be surely forestalled. 
 Y* in haste, 
 
 E. B. L. 
 
 XCVIII 
 
 James St., 
 Saturday, 
 May 22, 1847. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I got your note yesterday — it was returned 
 from Malvern which I had left suddenly on 
 urgent business. — I am obliged to run down 
 to Kneb. but I shall be back Monday & de- 
 lighted to see you on Tuesday if I can come 
 in the Evening — mornings being occupied. I 
 am rejoiced to find you engaged & cheerful. 
 
 In desperate haste, y rs 
 
 E. B. L. 
 
 [ 170 ] 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 XCIX 
 
 Haymarket, 
 April 27, 1848. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I send you the "Sylvia" you were good eno' 
 
 to lend me some time since. 
 
 I am most grieved to hear that Mrs. Mac- 
 ready has been long ill. I trust to have better 
 reports of her soon. 
 
 I too have been much distressed by the long 
 illness of my daughter. 
 
 Y r . s most truly 
 
 E. B. Lytton. 
 
 No. 1 Park Lane, 
 April 27, 1848. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I was delighted to see your handwriting again 
 & to engage you in anything away from 
 mournful thoughts, tho' you convey a sad in- 
 telligence about your son. I have known Ma- 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 deira effect such permanent cures in consump- 
 tive cases that I am very sanguine of your 
 son's complete restoration. "The spirits I have 
 raised " I have no time to consult further, but 
 I don't think their noises, if they make them, 
 are conveyed thro' material that is substantial 
 means but thro' electric or other fluid — which 
 might telegraph from a great distance. I am 
 now in for the theme' of C — . What a life of 
 evil passions & wearing drudgery ! I repent of 
 my whistle. If I can do anything in it I know 
 not — if so, it will be with force and labour, & 
 agst the grain. — 
 
 The sun for the first time shone in at my 
 windows, but London smiles not — I detest it. 
 
 "O for a lodge in some vast wilderness." 
 
 I don't know if we should quite agree about 
 education. But tho' I would grant the utmost 
 liberty to all sects, I would not have gov! con- 
 tribute to any education that excludes some 
 religious culture. I never was better in the 
 hour of temptation for what is called know- 
 ledge, but I have been saved from some sins 
 by the Childlike habit of prayer. And there- 
 fore I suppose others must be like me. 
 Ever my dear friend 
 
 Y! affi friend 
 
 E. B. L. 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 Saturday. I see nothing of Forster. He is so 
 political that he always says something to hurt 
 one's feelings. 
 
 ci 
 
 Leominster, 
 
 December 16, 1848. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 I have already written to you on the points 
 named in yours — received to-day. I hasten 
 to repeat the purport of my replies. 
 
 ll You never, directly or indirectly thro' 
 yourself or others, expressed any wish what- 
 soever that M' Forrest should not perform 
 in any play of mine, & it would have been so 
 unlike you to have sought to influence me on 
 such a point, that I should have disbelieved 
 any one, who ventured to report to me that 
 you had the least disinclination to M' Forrest's 
 taking a part in my plays. 
 
 2" d You never had any communication di- 
 rect or indirect with me or any agent of mine 
 
 C !73 ] 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 respecting any application from M r . Forrest to 
 act in my plays. 
 
 3 rd . ly I not only do not believe you capable 
 of any interference to the prejudice of the in- 
 terests of another Actor upon such a point. 
 But from a long & intimate acquaintance with 
 you I should have considered it an insult to 
 you, to have even asked you if you could 
 object to any actor performing your parts in 
 my plays: It is a proof indeed of that, — that 
 I have always unhesitatingly given permission 
 to M r . Kean to play Claude Melnotte, even at 
 a time when it might be thought that he pitted 
 that performance against your own. 
 
 Furthermore, according to the printed state- 
 ment from the Boston Mail, Oct. 30*, it seems 
 that I did accord to M' Forrest the permission 
 to act the part of Richelieu & Claude Melnotte, 
 for a less sum than I was, & still am, in the 
 habit of receiving for them at a London The- 
 atre — & a less sum than I should have asked 
 from any manager with whom you yourself 
 were engaged — viz 80 guineas for 40 nights, 
 that is for a full season. My usual terms would 
 be ioo g . s & you know well that my reason for 
 claiming pecuniary terms for the performance 
 of my plays, no matter who the actors, is to 
 set the example of enforcing my own act of 
 
 C 174 3 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 Act of Parliament, for the benefit of poorer 
 Dramatic Authors than myself. I am in the 
 usual habit of leaving it to some friend of lit- 
 erary station & not to a mere agent to fix the 
 terms, & I have little doubt but that as appears 
 by the Boston Mail that the plays were offered 
 to M r . Forrest upon more favourable terms than 
 to an English actor, in order that as an Ameri- 
 can, he might have full chance of any benefit 
 they could bring him. 
 
 The sum may seem high in America. But 
 for performances fewer in number than 40 
 nights I shall receive this year a much larger 
 sum from M r . Phelps as the Manager of a mi- 
 nor Metropolitan Theatre. 
 
 To the best of my recollection, at the time 
 to which this matter refers, we were not in any 
 personal intercourse with each other. 
 
 I have that confidence in the American Pub- 
 lic, that I feel perfectly persuaded it will rally 
 round you, with regret & even shame at so 
 unworthy a calumny from a part of its popu- 
 lation — unhappily misled — I can conceive that 
 your high sense of honour may be wounded 
 at the mere suspicion of practices so foreign to 
 your nature. In England the injustice of such 
 attacks seems as ludicrously glaring, as if 
 we had heard a report that the Duke of Well- 
 
 C 175 3 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 ington had been broken for cowardice or the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury sent to the Tread- 
 mill for picking pockets. 
 
 Your letter found me in the bustle of a parlia- 
 mentary canvass — & you will excuse so hasty 
 a scrawl from your sincere friend & brother 
 Artist 
 
 E. B. L. 
 
 # Sir E . Bulwer Ly tton in reply to my direct question . 
 
 W. C. M. 
 
 en 
 
 August i, 1854. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 Ml Saunders, who some years ago published 
 a few poems of remarkable sweetness & pro- 
 mise, has now written a play with the view of 
 representation. Would you do me the great 
 favour to look over it & to tell him frankly I s .' 
 how far you think the play itself would do on 
 the stage & next if you think it shows those 
 attributes which ( even supposing the play were 
 not likely to tell with an audience) should 
 
 This note was written by Macready. 
 
 : 1763 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 induce him to continue the cultivation of the 
 Dramatic Art. 
 
 I believe that he desires a candid opinion 
 from a competent Authority — & there is cer- 
 tainly no Man living whose authority on such 
 a point is equal to your own. 
 
 Y r . s Most truly 
 
 E. B. Lytton. 
 
 cm 
 
 Knebworth, 
 
 Stevenage, Herts. 
 August 21, 1863. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 It is very long since we met & it would give 
 
 me no small pleasure to see you again. 
 
 Can I tempt you & Mrs. Macready ( whose 
 acquaintance it seems to me I have a kind of 
 right to make in my long friendship with your- 
 self) to pay me a visit here for some days ?I ex- 
 pect to be at Knebworth from now throughout 
 the entire part of Sept r . You will find no party 
 but one or two friends and a cordial welcome. 
 
 I think you have one new addition to your 
 
 C 177 H 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 family, if not more — whom this invitation will 
 include. 
 
 Believe me ever 
 
 Y r . s truly 
 
 E. B. Lytton. 
 
 civ 
 
 Kneb. 
 
 July 27, 1866. 
 
 My dear Macready: 
 
 I am grieved to think that there is so little 
 
 chance of my seeing you here. 
 
 I need not say how heartily any little inter- 
 est I may have will be at your service for 
 M r . Spenser. But I am at this moment pre- 
 vented asking Sir Pakington for a nomina- 
 tion. The fact is that the very moment our 
 party came into power I was beset by Claim- 
 ants among Constituents etc. I have asked for 
 their nominations at the various departments, 
 till I can ask no more. 
 
 I have noted M r . Spenser's name as the first 
 on my reserved List whenever I can deco- 
 rously apply. But as you say this is his last 
 
 c 178 n 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 year as to the requisite Age, it may be wise 
 to apply to any other Conservative legislator 
 you know and it may be well to observe that 
 a Member of the House of Commons has much 
 more influence than a peer in obtaining these 
 nominations. 
 
 Of course you are aware that the person 
 nominated has to undergo competitive Ex- 
 aminations. 
 
 Believe me Most truly y r . s 
 
 Lytton. 
 
 cv 
 
 Thursday night, 
 
 November 19, 1866. 
 
 My dear Friend: 
 
 Your most interesting and manly letter gave 
 me that kind of melancholy pleasure with 
 which we admire the fortitude of a friend 
 under affliction. And I sincerely believe as well 
 as trust that time will gradually soften all sorts 
 of privation into that holy alliance between 
 present, past and future which the hopes that 
 we cherish insensibly cement. 
 
 C 179 3 
 
LETTERS OF BULWER-LYTTON 
 
 I have had here lately some of the Ameri- 
 can seers of whom you may have heard or 
 read and who profess to be the mediums of 
 communication between us and the spiritual 
 world , thro' the medium of knocking or sounds. 
 The phenomenon exhibited would have in- 
 terested you. There is no deception, I am con- 
 vinced, in the fact of the sounds being made 
 without any known human or material agency 
 — and these sounds reply to the Alphabet so 
 as to produce an intelligible conversation with 
 some thing or some being invisible. The conver- 
 sations themselves so far as I have witnessed 
 and participated are not, however, correspond- 
 ent with our exalted notions of spiritual inter- 
 course. Two or three predictions have been 
 made to me and dates specified. I shall see 
 if they will be verified. But my researches 
 have lately occupied a very interesting ground 
 viz : inquiring into the vestiges of Antient 
 Magic & the old world belief in spirits, etc. I 
 have convinced myself that there are in some 
 organizations powers not to be accounted for 
 by the senses, — and that in short there are 
 more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, etc. 
 Perhaps you will think from this that I am 
 letting my fancy run very wild. But I have 
 guarded myself against all tendencies to take 
 Z 180 ] 
 
TO MACREADY 
 
 any marvellous effect without strong evidence 
 — And I must also add that with phenomena 
 the most startling — much that is contradic- 
 tory & fallacious is constantly found so far as 
 I have gone. It is but peeps thro* the Blanket 
 of the Dark. I look with distaste and reluc- 
 tance to Politics & Pari! And my final position 
 in the change of parties will be painful. If you 
 come to town you will find me in trouble one 
 of the Lone. 
 
 I suppose my little godson is thriving. Kiss 
 him for me. 
 
 Adieu my dear friend. 
 
 God preserve and comfort you. 
 Y r . s ever 
 
 E. B. L. 
 
One Hundred Copies printed in October, 1911, by 
 D. B. Updike, at The Merrymount Press, Boston 
 
vm e i9i i 
 
One copy del. to Cat. Div. 
 
 JAN 9 '■