The Sun.
London, England, 1848-03-20 00:00:00

impossible to deny the right possessed by a poet in
this particular, especially after the many formidable
precedents adduced in Note 6, Book I (precedents
including such authorities as Dryden, Milton, and
Pope), it is inexcusable to find the writer of " King
Arthur" violating the rules of grammar and of
melody merely for the sake of a rhyme, as he has
done in this awkward couplet—
" Fair sir and king, from Mel Ynys I came,
Gwent-land my birthplace, Arthur is my name."
Albeit, the manner of the announcement forces upon
us an unpleasant recollection of the jingle scrawled
in the " Album" of Miss Tagrag by the burlesque
hero of " Ten Thousand a Year"—
" Tittlebat Titmouse is my name,
England is my nation," &c.
As to the authorship of " King Arthur" we feel
ourselves compelled to utter certain conjectures which
have been forced upon our mind irresistibly during
its perusal. Upon the original publication of the
" New Timon" we declared our conviction that the
writer was none other—could be none other, than
Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton. That conjecture re-
ceived almost immediately afterwards a very positive
contradiction. Yet Low—now that we have conned
the second composition of this anonymous poet—we
arc again compelled to assert that if the author of
"King Arthur" is not Bulwer, he is certainly " The
Gentleman in Black." More than one coincidence of
thought and manner has driven us to this conclusion.
And, first, of the coincidences of manner :—The
poem is filled with mannerisms, and all these man-
nerisms are Bulwerian, or Lyttonian, if you will.
The very habit of writing his adjectives with a
capital letter, whenever those adjectives are employed
as substantives, or of writing his substantives in the
same way when they are used as personifications of
things (a habit which is cleverly defended in an
elaborate and entertaining note)—is one peculiar to
Sir Bulwer Lytton, as every one acquainted with the
metaphysical portions of his prose or poetry already
knows. 'fake for example (page 25) that mention of
ghostly apparitions, as—
" The bloodless People of the Dark,
In the pale shape of Dreams—when to the bed
Of Murder glide the simulated deed."
Beyond this there are individual words peculiar (in a
particular sense) to Bulwer. Those who have wit-
nessed his drama of " The Sea Captain" know his
partiality for a symbolism by the stars, and stars
sparkle in a hundred verses of " King Arthur."
Solemn is more than a favourite expression of his—
it has become a diseased medium of emphasis in several
of his productions. In page 13 we have " Reign
the sad silence and the solemn star"—in page 16
" The solemn Merlin, from the midnight won"—in
page 18 " His wand uplifted in his solemn hand"—
in page 31 " Front death with dauntless, but with
solemn eye"—in page 40 " Answeed the King, and
at the solemn words"—all in the first book. Another
word, or, strictly speaking, a mere abbreviation, is a
yet greater favourite with Sir Bulwer Lytton—it is
in a manner peculiar to his writtngs, as peculiar to
them as the orthography of Sybil to Disraeli, or the
adjective ornate to Smythe. We mean that sonorous
monosyllable which recurs in the chorus to the famous
war-song in " Rienzi :"
" Blow, trumpets, blow,
Blow, trumpets, blow,
Gaily to glory we come,
Like a King in his pomp
To the blast of the tromp,
And the roar of the mighty drum."
In various passages of " King Arthur" the same pet
abbreviation is repeatedly introduced, as at page 72,
where it is said—
" Heralds the tromp and harpers wake the string;"
or, at page 86, in which the poet observes—
" And thrice the tromp his blazoa'd herald woke;"
or, once more, at page 112,
"No need for herald there his tromp to sound."
An equal significance may be attached to the dis-
sylable &vial, one of the pet epithets of our author.
It is discernible in more than one stanza, as for in-
stance where Lancelot is depicted (page 173) as
shaping his course, "by dcedal chasms," or where
the Happy Valley is first perceived by a wandering
Etrurian (page 127) beyond " a vista'd cavern,
long drawn and hollow'd through the deedal stone."
We have a vivid recollection of the extraordinary
effect produced by this simple adjective in that
renowned chapter in the " Last Days of Pompeii,"
in which the incantations of Arbaces are ar-
rested by the tumultuous heavings of an
earthquake.—" A mightier spirit than that of the
Egyptian was abroad !—a giant and crushing power,
before which sunk into sudden impotence his passion
and his arts. IT woke-1T stirred—that Dread
Demon of the Earthquake—laughing to scorn alike
the magic of human guile, and the malice of human
wrath. As a Titan on whom the mountains are
piled, it roused itself from the sleep of years—it
moved on its dada couch—the caverns below trem-
bled and groaned beneath the motion of its limbs."
That is the paragraph ; and it is a fragment not only of
one of the finest passages in the " Last Days of Pom-
peii," but of one of the noblest inspirations of the
novelist. We have transcribed the passage for a
double reason, because it affords an example of the
striking coincidences of thought between Bulwer and
the author of " King Arthur.' In the opening book
of this poem the incantations of Merlin are interrupted
by an occurrence precisely similar to that which in-
terrupted the incantations of Arbaces :
" Mute stood the King, when 10, the dragon-keep
Shook to its rack'd foundations, as when all
Corecia's caverns and the Delphic steep
Shook to the foot-tread of Invading Gaul;
Or as his path when flaming Etna trees,
Shakes some proud city on Sicilian seas."
Then, moreover, we ask any intelligent mind whether
there is not a more than subtle coincidence of thought
between this couplet (see " King Arthur," p.177):
" Few find the path, 0 bliss! 0 woe to find!
What bliss the blossom !—ah 1 what woe the wind !"
and the canzonet of Nydia the blind girl, in the
" Last Days of Pompeii"—
"The wind and the beam loved the rose,
And the rose loved one ;
But who reeks the wind as it blows,
Or loves not the sun ?"
Is there not a coincidence of thought between the
picture of the loves of Percy and Helen towards the
conclusion of " Lucretia," and the sublime question
asked by the poet in this volume, when pourtraying
the loves of Arthur and lEgle—
" Who ever gazed on perfect happiness,
Nor felt it as the shadow cast from God ?"

Above all, is there not a marvellous and most asto-
nishing coincidence of thought between the prin-
ciple advocated in the preface to that same "Lu-
cretia"—the principle that labour is the happiness
as well as the doom of man—and the principle en-
forced in almost every page and incident of " King
Arthur ?" In page So, where TOIL is called " Man's
first and noblest birthright," in page 181, where it is
termed " the doom of strength," and even in the
foot-note to page 167, where the glorious motto
of Richard Cceur de Lion (Labor viris convenit—
" Labour becomes men") is quoted in terms of admi-
ration. One more extract and we shall have com-
pleted our remarks upon these coincidences. In the
" Student," and subsequently in " Zanoni," a conjec-
ture is started by Bulwer that we can scarcely
imagine the vast and almost inconceivable distances
of space between the stars to be void, when we find
that nearly every grain of dust upon this globe is
teeming with life, and that every drop of water
swarms with animated existence. In " King Arthur"
(page 61), occurs this stanza :
" Can every leaf a teeming world contain ?
Can every globule gird a countless race,
Yet one death slumber, in its dreamless reign,
Clasp all the illumed magnificence of apace ?
Life crowd a grain, from air's vast realms effaced ?
The leaf a world—the firmament a waste ?"

After what we have here written, shall we not say
again with redoubled emphasis-1f Sir Bulwer
Lytton is not the author of " King Arthur," then is
the poet of the "New Timon," the Gentleman in
Black ? Whoever he be, he has already displayed a
very remarkable poetic genius—a genius which can
clothe its dreamings in language of masculine
eloquence.

EAST INDIA COMPANY.--RATES OF EXCHANGE."...
The directors of the East India Company have given
notice that, from the present date, until subsequent
notice, the rates of exchange at which they will receive
cash for bills on Bengal and Madras will be Is. 90. the
company's rupee, and for bills on Bombay ls. 10d. the
company's rupee.
LOYAL DEMONSTRATION IN HONOUR OF HER MA-
JESTY'S ACCOUCIIEMENT AT THE NATIONAL THEATRES.
—On Saturday night at the conclusion of the perform-
ances of each of the metropolitan theatres the National
Anthem was sung by the entire strength of each com-
pany in celebration of the safe delivery of her Majesty.
ho National Anthem was received everywhere with
much enthusiasm.—Obscr. rer.
CORPORATION or TILE SONS or THE CLERGY:.
On Saturday afternoon a special general court of go-
vernors was held at the society's house, Bloomsbury-
place, to elect a president in the room of the late la-
mented Primate. The nomination of the Most Rev. Dr.
Sumner, the present Archbishop of Canterbury, as suc-
cessor to the office, was carried without a single dissen-
tient voice.
ST. MARTIN'S-IN THE-FIELDS.--A meeting of the
special constables for this parish was held in the vestry-
room on Saturday, for the purpose of appointing a
general leader of the body. Mr. Churchwarden Daltoa
having been voted into the chair, Mr. Churchwarden
Palmer moved, and Captain Payne seconded, that the
Earl of Arundel and Surrey should be appointed to
that honourable post, which was carried unanimously.
Mr. Churchwarden Dalton then called upon the meeting
to give three cheers fur the Queen, who had that morn-
ing been safely delivered of a Princess, which was most
loyally responded to.