Godolphin, Volume VI

Godolphin, Volume VI

Constance, Countess of Erpingham, though racked with guilt over having revealed her marital unhappiness to Radclyffe, cannot suppress her joy at his assurance that Godolphin still loves her; she resolves to be softer and less proud toward her husband. Radclyffe himself, though once capable of winning affection, has long since renounced such arts and feels only a sacrificed impulse, never desire, toward Constance. Recalling her youthful love for Godolphin at Wendover, Constance questions whether she was too rigid in honoring her father's dying wish, and that night finds Godolphin asleep, murmuring guiltily to "Lucilla," confessing he betrayed and deserted her and sought forgetfulness in dissipation. Realizing she has left him to struggle alone with old guilt, Constance begs him the next day to spend the summer at Wendover Castle, reminding him it was where he first declared his love; the two reconcile fully, restoring tenderness between them. Lord John Russell introduces the Reform Bill, and Constance, ardent for the Whig cause as vengeance for her father (ruined by the old "patron and nominee system"), becomes its enthusiastic champion, delighted at both her marriage's renewal and the Bill's prospects. Meanwhile, in Leicester Square, the soothsayer Madame Liehbur — revealed as Volktman's daughter Lucilla, Godolphin's long-abandoned early love, now consumptive and half-mad, practicing occult "star" divination with her Moorish attendant — is visited by Radclyffe, skeptically seeking a "reading." She demands he fast three days and forgo sleep to awaken his imaginative faculty before she will reveal more, and he swears to it. That same night Godolphin, terrified and enfeebled by recurring visions of Lucilla, tells Constance he glimpsed her face at the garden gate and fears some impending crisis; Constance, suspecting the truth, disguises herself and visits Liehbur, deduces her identity by naming her father and Godolphin, and witnesses her collapse. Lucilla, moved by Constance's kindness, describes her ruined, wandering life and her devotion to her "science," and shows Constance a mystical star-dial marking two courses — Godolphin's bright star and her own dim one — fated to meet and halt together, foretelling her death. Lucilla vanishes before Constance can arrange help for her, leaving Constance to conceal the meeting from Godolphin, whose nightly torments nonetheless subside once Lucilla is no longer near. Godolphin's dissipated habits give way to introspection; at Radclyffe's counsel that "benevolence is the sole cure to idealism," he considers new purpose. Parliament is dissolved amid Reform fervor; Constance, without telling him, secures Godolphin's election for a close borough, though he privately holds aristocratic, anti-Bill convictions and dreads disappointing her. Constance selflessly urges him to pursue his "destiny" regardless of her politics. Their dissipated friend Saville dies with cynical, unrepentant composure, leaving Godolphin his fortune and papers; the actress Fanny Millinger attends the deathbed, and Godolphin reflects bitterly on life's resemblance to an unresolved play. Godolphin and Constance retreat to the country, reconciled and happier than ever. Constance reveals she has secretly rebuilt Godolphin's ancestral cottage into a restored Priory, blending old ruins with new halls, as a labor of love completed during their years of estrangement — deeply moving Godolphin. Their days at Godolphin Priory become an idyllic return to first love, shadowed by Constance's private guilt over concealing Lucilla and by ominous forebodings neither can shake, and by Godolphin's private meditation, alone by the lake, confessing to himself his lifelong "passive sin" of indolence toward Lucilla and resolving to seek her out. On the evening of a ball at the Priory, amid gathering storm, Godolphin receives a note: Lucilla, dying at a nearby inn, summons him. He rides through the storm to her bedside, where she dies in his arms, raving of stars, betrayal, and his coming doom, warning him to "beware" as she expires. Riding back through the storm, Godolphin misjudges a flooded ford, is struck by a bough while scaling the bank, and drowns; his riderless horse returns to Constance waiting at the Priory, and his body is found at dawn. The novel closes with a letter from Constance, dated August 1832, to the work's compiler, thanking him for suppressing real names but reproaching him for undervaluing Godolphin's generosity and genius while overstating his weaknesses; she confesses her own enduring, unacknowledged love, describes her isolated, griefless existence devoted only to political causes, and reflects on the destinies of gifted natures crushed by a world offering no worthy outlet for them — closing with a footnote affirming that this very effect is the intended moral of the narrative.

By Edward Bulwer-lytton · First published 1833 · Genre: Romance, Historical Fiction, Drama · 11 chapters · 23,130 words

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If Constance most bitterly reproached herself, or rather her slackened nerves, her breaking health, that she had before another -- that other too, not of her own sex -- betrayed her dependence upon even her husband's heart for happiness; if her conscience instantly took alarm at the error (and it was indeed a grave one) which had revealed to any man her domestic griefs; yet, on the other hand, she could not control the wild thrill of delight with which she recalled those words that had so solemnly assured her she was still beloved by Godolphin. She had a firm respect in Radclyffe's penetration and his sincerity, and knew that he was one neither to deceive her nor be deceived himself. His advice, too, came home to her. Had she, indeed, with sufficient address, sufficient softness, insinuated herself into Godolphin's nature? Neglected herself, had she not neglected in return? She asked herself this question, and was never weary of examining her past conduct.

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Godolphin, Volume VI is listed on Textopian as a novel by Edward Bulwer-lytton, dated 1833 CE.

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Historical Fiction · Romance · Adventure · Mystery · 19th Century Literature · English Literature · Victorian Era · Gothic Fiction · Tragedy · Family Drama · Social Class · Wealth and Power

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