grand-aunt, Mrs. Keith of Ravelstone, a lady then far advanced in life, applied to him in his younger years to obtain for her perusal the novels of Mrs. Afra Behn some of the most licentious in the language. Scott, though not without some qualms, complied with the request. The peccant volumes were, however, most speedily returned. >> Take back your bonny Mrs. Behn«, said Mrs. Keith, »and if you will follow my advice, put her in the fire. But is it not a strange thing«<, she added, »that I, a woman of eighty, sitting alone, feel myself ashamed to look through a book which, sixty years ago, I have heard read aloud for the amusement of large, circles of the best company in London?«

Although in the last century the common level of female education was undoubtedly less high than now, there seems some ground to conjecture that then a greater number of ladies studied the dead languages. We may picture to ourselves, as an instance, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu in her girlhood, seated in the little parlour << which she has described at Thoresby, and with the old oaks of the forest full in view, but relinquishing a summer stroll beneath them to con over the Latin version of Epictetus, and to render it in English, while Bishop Burnet, by her side, smiled on her young endeavours, and directed them. Yet her learning never caused Lady Mary to contemn the pursuits more especially allotted to her sex; on the contrary, we find her say, in one of her later letters, while treating of her grand-daughter's education, »>I think it as scandalous for a woman not to know how to use a needle, as for a man not to know how to use a sword«.

It may be worthy of note, that in the earlier part of the last century, a young lady whose education was completed was addressed in the same form as if already married. As she was a >>spinster« by law, so was she a >> mistress << by courtesy. Thus, for example, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu directs her letters for the maiden sister of her husband, to Mrs. instead of Miss, Wortley. This peculiarity is the more remarkable, since, at a shortly previous period, the very opposite, at least among certain classes, prevailed in France. As an instance, we may observe, in the »Impromptu de Ver sailles«<, that the wife of the greatest genius for comedy of modern times, bore the title, not of Madame, but of Mademoiselle, Molière.

A greater contrast can scarcely be conceived than between the dresses of the present day and those in vogue a hundred or a hundred and fifty years ago. Even with the aid of

Kneller's pictures we can scarcely bring to our mind's eye our grandmothers in their hoops and hair-powder, or our grandfathers with their huge periwigs and their clumsy shoes, with buckles at their feet and at their knees, with rich velvet for their morning attire, and always with a sword at their side. A gold snuff-box took the present place of a cigarcase, and a gold-headed cane the present place of a switch. So high were the heels then commonly worn, that Governor Pitt was enabled, in travelling, to conceal in a cavity which he had formed in one of them the great diamond which he had brought from the East Indies. Towards the time of the American War the ladies adopted a new and strange headdress, building up their hair into a most lofty tower or pinnacle, until the head, with its adjuncts, came to be almost a fourth of the whole figure. Several varieties of this extravagant fashion may be traced in the engravings of that day. > I have just had my hair dressed«, writes Miss Burney's Evelina. >> You cannot think how oddly my head feels; full of powder and black pins, and a great cushion on the top of it!<< Towards the time, however, of the Peace of 1783, there began to spread among both sexes a taste for greater plainness and simplicity of attire. This taste, like most others on this subject, appears to have come from France, and to have proceeded, in some degree, from the precept and example of Rousseau. But America also, it is said, gave an impulse in the same direction. Wraxall for his authority, though slight, may suffice for such matters as these complains, towards the year 1781, that Mr. Fox, who in early youth paid great attention to his dress, had grown wholly to neglect it. »He constantly, or at least usually, wore in the House of Commons, a blue frock coat and a buff waistcoat, neither of which seemed, in general, new, and both sometimes appeared to be thread-bare. Nor ought it to be forgotten that these colours then constituted the distinguishing badge or uniform of Washington and the American insurgents «. Yet here I cannot but suspect some misrepresentation of the motive. It is hard to believe, even of the most vehement days of partyspirit, that any Englishman could avowedly assume, in the House of Commons, the colours of those who, even though on the most righteous grounds, bore arms against England; and I should be willing to take in preference any other explanation that can be plausibly alleged.

By the influence, then, in some measure perhaps of both America and France, velvet coats and embroidered stomachers were, by degrees, relinquished. Swords were no longer in

variably worn by every one who claimed to be of gentle birth or breeding. They were first reserved for evening suits, and finally consigned, as at present, to Court dresses. Nevertheless, several years were needed ere this change was fully wrought. In Guy Mannering, where the author refers to the end of the American War, he observes of morning suits, that >> though the custom of wearing swords by persons out of uniform had been gradually becoming obsolete, it was not yet so totally forgotten as to occasion any particular remark towards those who chose to adhere to it. Thus it may be difficult to fix the precise period of this change. But no one, on reflection, will deny its real importance. To wear a sword had been, until then, the distinguishing mark of a gentleman or officer. It formed a line of demarcation between these classes and the rest of the community; it implied something of deference in the last, and something of >knightliness«<, as Spenser terms it, in the former. Immediately after the cessation of this ancient usage, we find Burke lamenting that the age of chivalry was gone. Yet, although there was, or in theory at least there might be, some advantage in this outward sign of the feelings and the duties comprehended in the name of Gentleman, we must own that it was balanced by other evils, and especially by the greater frequency of duels it produced. Where both parties wore their swords, there was a constant temptation to draw and use them in any sudden quarrel. I may allege as a fair example the case, in 1765, of Mr. Chaworth and his country neighbour, Lord Byron, the grand-uncle and predecessor of the poet. These gentlemen had been dining together at the Nottinghamshire Club, which was held once a month at a tavern in Pall Mall. A discussion arose as to the comparative merits of their manors in point of game, and Mr. Chaworth was at length provoked into declaring that if it were not for Sir Charles Sedley's care and his own, Lord Byron would not have a hare on his estate. Upon this they withdrew to another room lighted by a single tallow-candle, where they drew their swords and fought, and where Mr. Chaworth was killed. Lord Byron was brought to trial before his Peers, and found guilty of Manslaughter only.

LORD LYTTON.

1805-1873.

Edward Bulwer, Lord Lytton, en yngre Broder af den fornemmelig som Diplomat, men ogsaa som Forfatter bekjendte Sir Henry Bulwer († 1872 som Lord Dalling), blev født 1805 i Grevskabet Norfolk i det nordlige England. Han hører til de frugtbareste af de nyere engelske Forfattere, ligesom han har været en af de mest læste, i som udenfor England. Han har forsøgt sig i næsten alle Digtarter, skrevet lyriske, episke, dramatiske og satiriske Digte, forfattet over tyve større Romaner, været en flittig Medarbeider i forskjellige literære Tidsskrifter, og under alt dette siddet ikke blot i Parlamentet, men en Tid ogsaa i Ministeriet (i Lord Derbys sidste Kabinet som Kolonialminister). Mest Ry har han vundet ved sine Romaner. Gjennem disse er han bleven den første Repræsentant for en ny Retning inden dette Skriftslags, den saakaldte sociale Roman, der ikke nøier sig med rent episk at skildre den reale Verden (saaledes som Walter Scott gjør), men vender sig kritisk og skeptisk mod de bestaaende Tilstande. Den første af hans Romaner, som med Eet skaffede ham et Navn, var Pelham, or the Adventures of a Gentleman (1828), der gjorde almindelig Opsigt ved Afsløringerne af Livet i de exklusive aristokratiske Kredse, som dengang vare det læsende Publikum en temmelig ubekjendt Verden og her for første Gang saaes skildrede af en virkelig Indviet. Ovenpaa Pelham fulgte en Række Romaner, som fornemmelig dvæle ved det sociale Livs Natside, Skildringer af store, saakaldte interessante Forbrydere, med et stærkt socialistisk Anstrøg, idet Samfundet som Helhed gjøres medansvarligt for deres Forbrydelser, og disse, om ikke ligefrem forsvares, saa dog til en vis Grad undskyldes: „Mennesket ser Gjerningen, Gud Omstændighederne; dømmer ikke, at I ikke skulle dømmes", saaledes lyder den Gravskrift, som af Helten i „Night and Morning" sættes over Falskmyntneren Gawtrey. Til denne Klasse høre Paul Clifford (1830), Eugene Aram (1832), Night and Morning (1841), for en Del ogsaa Devereux (1829) og Ernest Maltravers (1837, med dens Fortsættelse

Alice, or the Mysteries), den sidste en af hans interessanteste Romaner. Med Lucretia, or the Children of the Night, en Rædselsroman, som vakte stort Anstød, forlod han dette Genre og vendte sig til Skildringen af mere normale engelske Karakterer i The Caxtons, My Novel, or Varieties of English Life, Kenelm Chillingley, og fl. a. (1849-1872). Med sin sidste Roman, The Parisians, som var efterladt ufuldendt ved hans Død, gaar han over til Fastlandet og skildrer en Episode fra den sidste fransk-tyske Krig.

Af Bulwers øvrige Romaner kunne nævnes følgende, som behandle historiske Emner: The Last Days of Pompeji (1884), Rienzi, or the Last of the Tribunes (1836), begge skrevne i Italien; og The Last of the Barons (1843), en Skildring fra Rosekrigene, hvori Jarlen af Warwick, „the King-maker“, er Helten.

Sine mindre, oprindelig til Tidsskrifter meddelte prosaiske Opsatser, har han samlet og udgivet i tre Bind under Titelen Miscellaneous Prose Works, som indeholde flere Ting af blivende Værd. Nævnes maa ogsaa den politiske Broschure England and the English, som udkom i 1833, og som ved Siden af meget Ensidigt ogsaa indeholder mange meget træffende og sande Bemærkninger om engelske Forhold.

Bulwer var en Mand med høi intellektuel Dannelse. Han havde nydt en omhyggelig engelsk Opdragelse og derhos grundig studeret Fastlandets Literaturer, specielt den tyske. Han har stærkt benyttet Goethe, men Schiller var hans Yndlingsforfatter; han har oversat hans Digte og skrevet hans Biografi (optaget i første Bind af hans prosaiske Skrifter). Med sit eget Forfatterskab tog han det alvorligt, og andre Forfattere bistod han baade med Raad og med Daad; Literaturens Interesser have i England ikke havt varmere Talsmand end ham (smlgn. ovfr. S. 110-11).

Ved sin Moders Død blev han Arving til hendes store Eiendomme og antog hendes Familienavn Lytton. I 1838, ved Dronning Viktorias Kroning, blev han Baronet, og i 1866 optaget i Pairsskabet som Lord Lytton. Han døde den 18de Januar 1873 i Badestedet Torquay ved Kanalen. Hans eneste Søn, den nuværende Lord Lytton, som er gaaet den diplomatiske Vei og en kort Tid var engelsk Legationssekretær i Kjøbenhavn, har under Pseudonymet Owen Meredith" udgivet flere Samlinger Digte, dels originale, dels Oversættelser og Bearbeidelser fra fremmede Literaturer.