Benjamin Disraeli

“ Disraeli was the friend, of literary merit in the obscure and unfortunate, in which he was the rival of Sir Robert Peel, as his son Benjamin became in the career of parliamentary oratory and politics. He married, in 1802, Miss Basseni, of Brighton, aunt to the celebrated architect Basseni, and who became the mother of the celebrated leader of the tory and protection party in the commons, after the decease of his less able predecessor, Lord George Bentinck. Few men ever pursued literature, for its own sake, with more heartiness than Isaac Disraeli. ”

“ I come with a thousand blessings,' replied the lady.
'And with a thousand something else,' thought Amalek to himself; but the Arabs are so polished that they never make unnecessary allusions to business.
'Had I thought the Queen of Sheba was going to pay me a visit,' said the great Sheikh, 'I would have brought the pavilion of Miriam. How is the Rose of Sharon?' he continued, as he ushered Eva into his tent. 'How is the son of my heart; how is Besso, more generous than a thousand kings?'
'Speak not of the son of thy heart,' said Eva, seating herself on the divan. ”

“ May not Asriel conquer?’
‘I hope so, in my company. For a time we part, a short one. ‘Tis our first parting: may it be our last!’
‘Oh! no, no, no: oh! say not we must part.’
‘The troops are under arms; to-morrow’s dawn will hear my trumpet.’
‘I will not quit thee, no! I will not quit thee. What business has Schirene without Alroy? Hast thou not often told me I am thy inspiration? In the hour of danger shall I be wanting? Never! I will not quit thee; no, I will not quit thee.’
‘Thou art ever present in my thoughts, my soul. ”

“ Mr Hatton shook his head with a slight smile of contemptuous incredulity.
"Sir Robert," he said, "will make no peers; take my word for that. The whigs and I have so deluged the House of Lords, that you may rely upon it as a secret of state, that if the tories come in, there will be no peers made. I know the Queen is sensitively alive to the cheapening of all honours of late years. If the whigs go out to-morrow, mark me, they will disappoint all their friends. Their underlings have promised so many, that treachery is inevitable, and if they deceive some they may as well deceive all. ”

“ Be silent, tongue, thou art a babbling counsellor. Jabaster’s patriot soul needs not the idle schooling of a child. If he be silent, ‘tis that his wisdom deems that the hour is not ripe, but when her leader speaks, Israel will not be slack.’
‘The Moslemin in council! We know what must come next. Our national existence is in its last agony. Methinks the time is very ripe, Abidan.’
‘Why, so we think, great sir; and say the word, and twenty thousand spears will guard the Ark. I’ll answer for my men. Stout Scherirah looks grimly on the Moabites. ”

“ I was always against washing; it takes the marrow out of a man."
"Here we are," said Field, as the roofs and bowers of the village, the spire and the spreading factory, broke upon them. "Every door and every window closed! The settlement is deserted. Some one has been before us and apprised them of our arrival."
"Will they pour water on me?" said the Bishop. "It must be a stream indeed that shall put out the blaze that I am going to light. What shall we do first? Halt there, you men," said the Liberator looking back with that scowl which his apprentices never could forget. ”

“ I understand all this: they all come to your father because he deals in money, and is the only man in Syria who has money. What he pays, he is again paid. Is it not so, Eva? Daughter of my blood, let there not be strife between us; give me a million piastres, and a hundred camels to the widow of Sheikh Salem, and take the brother of the Queen.'
'Camels shall be given to the widow of Sheikh Salem,' said Eva, in a conciliatory voice; 'but for this ransom of which you speak, my father, it is not a question as to the number of piastres. ”

“ The Duke sighed for a little novelty. Christmas was at hand. He began to think that a regular country Christmas must be a sad bore. Lady Afy, too, was rather exigeante. It destroys one’s nerves to be amiable every day to the same human being. She was the best creature in the world; but Cambridgeshire was not a pleasant county. He was most attached; but there was not another agreeable woman in the house. He would not hurt her feelings for the world; but his own were suffering desperately. He had no idea that he ever should get so entangled. Brighton, they say, is a pleasant place. ”

“ I:4:61 KING. Woe is me! The doom Falls on our house. I had this daughter left To lavish all my wealth on and my might. I’ve treasured for her; for her I have slain My thousands, conquered provinces, betrayed, Renewed, and broken faith. She was my joy; She has her mother’s eyes, and when she speaks Her voice is like Brunhalda’s. Cursed hour, That a wild fancy touched her brain to cross All my great hopes! I:4:62 SOL. My father, my dear father, Thou call’dst me fondly, but some moments past, Thy gentle child. I call my saint to witness I would be such. To say I love this man Is shallow phrasing. ”

“ Benjamin Disraeli's polite letter of the 27th. Mr. Murray will be ready at all times to receive any MS. which Mr. B. Disraeli may think proper to confide to him. Mr. Murray hopes the result of Mr. Disraeli's travels will complete the restoration of his health, and the gratification of his expectations."
Nearly two years passed before Mr. Disraeli returned to England from those travels in Spain, the Mediterranean and the Levant, which are so admirably described in his "Home Letters," [Footnote: "Home Letters," written by the late Earl of Beaconsfield in 1830 and 1831. London, 1885.] ”

“ As a populariser of literary researches D'Israeli achieved a deserved reputation. If not very accurate, he was learned and widely read. He is described by his son as a nervous man of retiring disposition. Benjamin Disraeli edited a new edition of ‘Charles I’ in 1851, and a collected edition of his father's other works in 1858–9 (7 vols.) The ‘Curiosities’ has been repeatedly reissued in cheap editions both here and in America. ”

“ As long as there is fighting, he will meddle with nothing else; but, mark my words, Ithamar: in quiet times he will support the priest.’
‘Medad will have a place in council. He is with us.’
‘Heart and soul. I would your brother were here, Asriel: he alone could balance Jabaster. Alroy loves your brother like himself. Is it true that he marries the Lady Miriam?’
‘So the king wishes. ‘Twill be a fine match for Abner.’
‘The world is all before us. I wonder who will be viceroy of Syria.’
‘When we conquer it. Not Scherirah. Mark my words, Ithamar: he never will have a government. ”

“ What is their force? Are we supposed to be at hand?’
‘I am a faithful subject of the Caliph, and I am bound to serve him,’ replied the merchant; ‘I am a devout Moslem, and ‘tis my duty to destroy all Giaours, but I am also a man, and I must look after my own interest. Noble Governor, the long and the short is, these scoundrels have robbed me of ten thousand dirhems, as my slaves will tell you: at least, goods to that amount. No one can prove that they be worth less. It is true that I include in that calculation the fifty per cent. ”

“ This was the bitter drop in the cup; yes! in the very plenitude of his rare felicity he expressed a pang. His confusion was not unobserved by Miss Temple; for she was very quick in her perception; but she could not comprehend it. It did not rest on her mind, particularly when Ferdinand assented to her proposition, but added, ‘I forgot that Armine is more interesting to you than to me. All my associations with Armine are painful. Ducie is my delight.’
‘Ah! my romance is at Armine; yours at Ducie. What we live among, we do not always value. ”

“ He never was known, in the whole course of his practice, ever to have prescribed a single drug. He was a handsome man, with a flowing beard curiously perfumed, and a robe of the choicest purple. He twirled a cane of agate, round which was twined a serpent of precious stones, the gift of Juno, and he rode in a chariot drawn by horses of the Sun. When he visited Proserpine, he neither examined her tongue nor felt her pulse, but gave her an account of a fancy ball which he had attended the last evening he passed on terra firma. His details were so interesting that the Queen soon felt better. ”

“ Eugenie has told you; a dinner at a merchant's; dressed in a draught; everything spoiled, and I———' and sighing, Papa Prevost sipped his eau sucrée.
'We have all our troubles,' said Leander, in a consoling tone; 'but we will not speak now of vexations. I have just come from the country; Daubuz has written to me twice; he was at my house last night; I found him on my steps this morning. There is a grand affair on the tapis. The son of the Duke of Bellamont comes of age at Easter; it is to be a business of the thousand and one nights; the whole county to be feasted. ”

“ I:2:15 COUN. Yet didst then leave my side this very morn, And with a vow this day should ever count Amid thy life most happy; when we meet Thy brow is clouded. I:2:16 ALAR. Joy is sometimes grave, And deepest when ‘tis calm. And I am joyful If it be joy, this long forbidden hall Once more to pace, and feel each fearless step Tread on a baffled foe. I:2:17 COUN. Hast thou still foes I:2:18 ALAR. I trust so; I should not be what I am, Still less what I will be, if hate did not Pursue me as my shadow. Ah! fair wife, Thou knowest not Burgos. Thou hast yet to fathom The depths of thy new world. ”

“ Annesley. Shall I tell you what Lord Bon Mot said of you?’
‘No, ma mignonne! I never wish to hear my own good things.’
‘Spoiled, you should add,’ said the fair rival of Lord Squib, ‘if Bon Mot be in the case.’
‘Lord Bon Mot is a most gentlemanlike man,’ said Delia, indignant at an admirer being attacked. ‘He always wants to be amusing. Whenever he dines out, he comes and sits with me for half an hour to catch the air of the Parisian badinage.’
‘And you tell him a variety of little things?’ asked Lord Squib, insidiously drawing out the secret tactics of Bon Mot. ”

“ It was necessary, after the last remark of the great Sheikh, to take new ground, and, instead of dwelling, as she was about to do, on the exaggeration of public report, and attempting to ridicule the vast expectations of her host, she said, in a soft tone, 'You did not ask me why Besso was in such affliction, father of my mother?'
'There are many sorrows: has he lost ships? If a man is in sound health, all the rest are dreams. And Besso needs no hakeem, or you would not be here, my Rose of Sharon.'
'The light may have become darkness in our eyes, though we may still eat and drink,' said Eva. ”

“ Punch's Staff of Learned Clerks.)
We have had to wait four years for the concluding volumes of The Life of Benjamin Disraeli (Murray) , but, as the engaged couple said of the tunnel, "it was worth it," for in the interval Mr. Buckle has been able to enrich his work with a wealth of new material. This includes Disraeli's correspondence with Queen Victoria during his two Premierships, and the still more remarkable letters that he wrote to the two favoured sisters, Anne, Lady Chesterfield, and Selina, Lady Bradford, during the last eight years of his life. ”

“ Yet, be the actual bricks and mortar never so prosaic, there is a strange fascination about the dwellings where great men have lived and died. Benjamin Disraeli was born, like Ruskin, in the shades of Bloomsbury, and, again like him, migrated, later, to Mayfair on his marriage. The late Lord Beaconsfield remained, however, always faithful to the West End. ”

“ Upon the right of the master of the divan was, smoking a jasmine pipe, Scheriff Effendi, an Egyptian merchant, of Arab race, a dark face in a white turban, mild and imperturbable, and seated as erect on his crossed legs as if he were administering justice; a remarkable contrast to the individual who was on the left of the host, who might have been mistaken for a mass of brilliant garments huddled together, had not the gurgling sound of the nargileh occasionally assured the spectator that it was animated by human breath. ”

“ What then was the horror, the consternation of Alroy, when Benaiah, dashing up to him, informed him that the long-expected succours consisted of the united forces of Scherirah and Abidan, and had attacked him in the rear. Human genius could afford no resource. The exhausted Hebrews, whose energies had been tasked to the utmost, were surrounded. The Karasmians made a general and simultaneous advance. In a few minutes the Hebrew army was thrown into confusion. The stoutest warriors threw away their swords in despair. Every one thought only of self-preservation. Even Abner fled towards Hamadan. ”

“ A glass of claret was the third grace. But, if we had been there, we should have devoted ourselves to one of the sparkling sisters; for one wine, like one woman, is sufficient to interest one’s feelings for four-and-twenty hours. Fickleness we abhor.
‘I observed you riding to-day with the gentle Leonora, St. James,’ said Mr. Annesley.
‘No! her sister.’
‘Indeed! Those girls are uncommonly alike. The fact is, now, that neither face nor figure depends upon nature.’
‘No,’ said Lord Squib; ‘all that the artists of the present day want is a model. ”