"There are different degrees and many phases of the passion," replied my father. "Shakespeare is speaking of an ill-treated, pining, woebegone lover, much aggrieved by the cruelty of his mistress, -- a lover who has found it of no avail to smarten himself up, and has fallen despondently into the opposite extreme. Whereas Signor Riccabocca has nothing to complain of in the barbarity of Miss Jemima." -- "Indeed he has not!" cried Blanche, tossing her head, -- "forward creature!" -- "Yes, my dear," said my mother, trying her best to look stately, "I am decidedly of opinion that, in that respect, Pisistratus has lowered the dignity of the sex. Not intentionally," added my mother, mildly, and afraid she had said something too bitter; "but it is very hard for a man to describe us women." The captain nodded approvingly; Mr. Squills smiled; my father quietly resumed the thread of his discourse.
Author Biography
Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton, PC (1803 - 1873) was an English novelist, poet, playwright and politician. He was immensely popular with the reading public and wrote a stream of bestselling novels which earned him a considerable fortune. He coined the phrases "the great unwashed," "pursuit of the almighty dollar," "the pen is mightier than the sword," "dweller on the threshold" and the well-known opening line "It was a dark and stormy night."
