Rienzi, the Last of the Roman Tribunes

Name: Rienzi, the Last of the Roman Tribunes
Author: Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron Lytton

by Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron Lytton

Pages: about 656
Category: Literature & Fiction
Language: English
Reading time: 12 h at 250 wpm

Start readingThe whole book, as cards or one word at a time. 6.7 h at 450 wpm in Read mode.

From the opening

Then turn we to her latest Tribune’s name, From her ten thousand tyrants turn to thee, Redeemer of dark centuries of shame-- The friend of Petrarch--hope of Italy-- Rienzi, last of Romans! While the tree Of Freedom’s wither’d trunk puts forth a leaf, Even for thy tomb a garland let it be-- The Forum’s champion, and the People’s chief-- Her new-born Numa thou!
Amidst the indulgence of enthusiasm and eloquence, Petrarch, Italy, and Europe, were astonished by a revolution, which realized for a moment his most splendid visions.--Gibbon, chap. 1xx.
Prefixed to the First Collected Edition of the Author’s Works in 1840.
In inscribing with your beloved and honoured name this Collection of my Works, I could wish that the fruits of my manhood were worthier of the tender and anxious pains bestowed upon my education in youth.
Left yet young, and with no ordinary accomplishments and gifts, the sole guardian of your sons, to them you devoted the best years of your useful and spotless life; and any success it be their fate to attain in the paths they have severally chosen, would have its principal sweetness in the thought that such success was the reward of one whose hand aided every struggle, and whose heart sympathized in every care.
From your graceful and accomplished taste, I early learned that affection for literature which has exercised so large an influence over the pursuits of my life; and you who were my first guide, were my earliest critic. Do you remember the summer days, which seemed to me so short, when you repeated to me those old ballads with which Percy revived the decaying spirit of our national muse, or the smooth couplets of Pope, or those gentle and polished verses with the composition of which you had beguiled your own earlier leisure?

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Rienzi, the Last of the Roman Tribunes

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