Russelton

• Posted by mgr on October 9th, 2007 filed in Bulwer-Lytton
• >

Pelham, the protagonist of Edward Bulwer Lytton’s so-called novel, at one point meets Russelton, who is modeled after the original dandy Beau Brummell.

Mr. Russelton. At the name of the person thus introduced to me a thousand recollections crowded upon my mind; the contemporary and rival of Napoleon; the autocrat of the great world of fashion and cravats; the mighty genius before whom aristocracy hath been humbled and ton abashed; at whose nod the haughtiest noblesse of Europe had qualied; who had introduced by a single example starch into neckcloths, and had fed the pampered appetite of his boot-tops on champagne; whose coat and whose friend were cut with an equal grace; and whose name was connected with every triumph that the world’s great virtue of audacity could achieve - the illustrious, the immortal Russelton, stood before me! I recognized in him a congenial, though a superior, spirit, and I bowed with a profundtiy of veneration with which no other human being has ever inspired me.

»For my part, I have no stomach left now for art: I wore out my digestion in youth, swallowing Jack St. Leger’s suppers, and Sheridan’s promises to pay.« (Russelton)

»Stultz aims at making gentlemen, not coats; there is a degree of aristocratic pretension in his stitches which is vulgar to an appalling degree. You can tell a Stultz coat anywhere, which is quite enough to damn it; the moment a man’s known by an invariable cut, and that not original, it ought to be all over with him. Give me the man who makes the tailor, not the tailor who makes the man.« (Russelton)

»I came into the world with an inordinate love of glory, and a great admiration of the original … the great secrets of being courted are to shun others, and seem delighted with yourself« (Russelton)

»Before I commenced a part which was to continue through life, I considered deeply on the humors of the spectators. I saw that the character of the more fashionable of the English was servile to rank, and yielding to pretension, they admire you for your acquaintance, and cringe to you for your conceit. The first thing, therefore, was to know great people; the second, to control them. I dressed well, and had good horses - that was sufficient to make me sought by the young of my own sex. I talked scandal, and was never abashed - that was more than enough to make me admired among the matrons of the other. It is single men, and married women, to whom are given the St. Peter’s keys of Society. I was soon admitted into its heaven - I was more - I was one of its saints. I became imitated as well as initiated. I was the rage, the lion. Why? Was I better - was I richer - was I handsomer - was I cleverer, than my kind? No, no (and here Russelton ground his teeth with a strong and wrathful expression of scorn); and had I been all - had I been a very concentration and monopoly of all human perfections - they would not have valued me at half the price they did set on me. It was - I will tell you the simple secret, Mr. Pelham - it was becaues I trampled on them, that, like crushed herbs, they sent up a grateful incense in return.
Oh, it was balm to my bitter and loathing temper, to see those who would have spurned me from them, if they dared writhe beneath my lash, as I withheld or inflicted it at will! I was the magician who held the great spirits that longed to tear me to pieces by one simple spell which a superior hardihood had won me; and, by Heaven! I did not spare to exert it.«

Edward Bulwer-Lytton: Pelham, or, Adventures of a Gentleman. (1828)

Tweet This Post Plurk This Post Buzz This Post Delicious Digg This Post Facebook MySpace Ping This Post Reddit Stumble This Post