Walpole;: Or, Every man has his price, a comedy in rhyme in three acts

Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton PC (25 May 1803 ? 18 January 1873), was an English politician, poet, playwright, and prolific novelist. He was immensely popular with the reading public and wrote a stream of bestselling novels which earned him a considerable fortune. But, like many authors of the period, his style seems florid and embellished to modern tastes. He coined the phrases "the great unwashed", "pursuit of the almighty dollar", "the pen is mightier than the sword", and the famous opening line "It was a dark and stormy night".