Chapter Lyndesay to Lytton of L by Biographical Dictionary of English Literature

Lyndesay to Lytton

Lyndesay, Sir D. (See Lindsay.)

Lyte, Henry Francis (1793-1847).—Hymn-writer, born at Ednam, near Kelso, of an ancient Somersetshire family, and ed. at Trinity College, Dublin, took orders, and was incumbent of Lower Brixham, Devonshire. He published Poems: chiefly religious (1833). He is chiefly remembered for his hymns, one of which, Abide with Me, is universally known and loved.

Lyttelton, George, Ist Lord Lyttelton (1709-1773).—Poet, son of Sir Thomas Lyttelton, of Hagley, Worcestershire, ed. at Eton and Oxford, was the patron of many literary men, including Thomson and Mallet, and was himself a somewhat voluminous author. Among his works are Letters from a Persian in England to his friend in Ispahan (1735), a treatise On the Conversion of St. Paul (1746), Dialogues of the Dead (1760), which had great popularity, and a History of the Reign of Henry II., well-informed, careful, and impartial, but tedious. He is chiefly remembered by his Monody on the death of his wife. The stanza in The Castle of Indolence in which Thomson is playfully described (canto I, st. lxviii.), is by Lyttelton, who is himself referred to in lxv. He took some part in public affairs, and was Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1756.

Lytton, Edward George Earle Lytton-Bulwer, Ist Lord (1803-1873).—Novelist and statesman, third son of General Earle Bulwer of Heydon and Dalling, Norfolk, and of Elizabeth Lytton, heiress of Knebworth, Herts, was born in London, and ed. privately and at Cambridge He began to write when still a boy, and published, in 1820, Ismael and other Poems. His marriage in 1825 to Rosina Wheeler, an Irish beauty, caused a quarrel with his mother, and the loss of his income, and thus incidentally gave the impulse to his marvellous literary activity. The marriage proved an unhappy one, and was terminated by a separation in 1836. During its continuance, however, his life was a busy and productive one, its literary results including Falkland (1828), Pelham (1828), Paul Clifford (1830), Eugene Aram (1832), The Pilgrims of the Rhine, Last Days of Pompeii, Rienzi (1835), besides England and the English, Athens, its Rise and Fall, and innumerable tales, essays, and articles in various reviews and magazines, including the New Monthly, of which he became editor in 1831. In the same year he entered Parliament as a Liberal, but gradually gravitated towards Conservatism, and held office in the second government of Lord Derby as Colonial Sec. 1858-59. As a politician he devoted himself largely to questions affecting authors, such as copyright and the removal of taxes upon literature. He continued his literary labours with almost unabated energy until the end of his life, his works later than those already mentioned including the Last of the Barons (1843), Harold (1848), the famous triad of The Caxtons (1850), My Novel (1853), and What will he do with it? (1859); and his studies in the supernatural, Zanoni (1842), and A Strange Story (1862). Later still were The Coming Race (1870) and Kenelm Chillingly (1873). To the drama he contributed three plays which still enjoy popularity, The Lady of Lyons, Richelieu, both (1838), and Money (1840). In poetry he was less successful. The New Timon, a satire, is the best remembered, largely, however, owing to the reply by Tennyson which it brought down upon the author, who had attacked him. In his works, numbering over 60, Lytton showed an amazing versatility, both in subject and treatment, but they have not, with perhaps the exception of the Caxton series, kept their original popularity. Their faults are artificiality, and forced brilliancy, and as a rule they rather dazzle by their cleverness than touch by their truth to nature. Lytton was raised to the peerage in 1866.

Life, Letters, etc., of Lord Lytton by his son, 2 vols., comes down to 1832 only. Political Memoir prefaced to Speeches (2 vols., 1874).

Lytton, Edward Robert Bulwer, Ist Earl Of Lytton (1831-1891).—Poet and statesman, son of the above, was ed. at Harrow and Bonn, and thereafter was private secretrayto his uncle, Sir H. Bulwer, afterwards Lord Dalling and Bulwer (q.v., at Washington and Florence. Subsequently he held various diplomatic appointments at other European capitals. In 1873 he succeeded his father in the title, and in 1876 became Viceroy of India. He was created an Earl on his retirement in 1880, and was in 1887 appointed Ambassador at Paris, where he died in 1891. He valued himself much more as a poet than as a man of affairs; but, though he had in a considerable degree some of the qualities of a poet, he never quite succeeded in commanding the recognition of either the public or the critics. His writings, usually appearing under the