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

Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton. That conjecture re-
ceived almost immediately afterwards a very positive

contradiction.

Yet now—now that we have conned

the second composition of this anonymous poet—we
are again compeiled 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 Bulworian, 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)—rs one peculiar to
Sir Bulwer Lytton, as every one acquainted with the
metaphysical portions of his prose or poetry already
knows. Take for example (page ?•5) 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 " Answer'd 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 Sin) the. 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 pa sages of " King Arthur" the same pet
abbreviation is repeatedly introduced, as at page 72,
where it is said—

" llera!ds the tromp and harpers wake the string;"
or, at page 86, iu which the poet observes—
" And thrice the tromp his blazun'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 daqtzl, 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 deedal chasms," or where
the llappy Valley is first perceived by a wandering
Etrurian (page 127) beyond " a vista'd cavern,
long drawn and hollow'd through the dcedal 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—lT 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
Corycia's caverns and the Delphic steep
Shook to the foot-tread of Invading Gaul;
Or as his path when flaming Etna frees,
Shakes seine 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 woo to find!
What bliss the blossom !—ah 1 what woe the wind .r"
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 .z'Eglc—
" Who ever gazed on perfect happiness,
IVo r felt it as the shadow cast front 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 30, where TOIL is called "plan'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 Cur de Lion (Labor viris canvenit—
" Labour becomes men") is quoted in terms of admi-
ratio3. 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 gi ain of dust upon this globe is
teeming with life, and that every drop of water
swarms with animated existence. In " lung Arthur"
(page 61), occurs this stanza :
" Can every leaf a taming world contain ?
Can every globule gird a countless race,
Yet one death slumber, in its dreamless reign,
Clasp all the illum:d magnificence of space ?
Life crowd a grain, from Lies vast realms effaced ?
The leaf a world—the firmament a waste ?"

After what we have here written, shall we not say
again with redouLled mit ht.sis—lf Sir Bulwer
Lytton is not the author if " King Arthur," then is
the poet of the "-New Timcn," the Gentleman
Black? iii
Whoever he be, he has already displayed a
very remaikable poetic genius—a genius which can
clothe its dreaniings in language of masculine
eloquence.

EAST INDIA COMPANY.--RATES OF EXCUANGE.—
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LOYAL DEidONSTRATION IN ilosouß or lIER All-
JESTY'S ACCOUCIIF.MENT AT TUE NATIONAL TUEATRES.
—On Saturday night at the conclusion of the porforw-
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.
The National Anthem was received everywhere with
much enthusiasm.—Observer.
CORPORATION OF TIIE SONS OF TUE 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 disien•
tient voice.
ST. MARTIN'S-IN TIIE-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 Dalton
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 for the Queen, who had that morn-
ing been safely delivered of a Princess, which was most
loyally reslonded to.