"LORD BEACONSFIELD."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19382, 17 July 1926, Page 7 (Supplement)

"LORD BEACONSFIELD."

DISRAELI'S FIRST NOVEL. One of the characters in Disraali's first novel bears the title of " Lord Beaconsfield." Depicted as a worthy but foolish peer, he was certainly not in the author's mind when, more than forty years later, the retiring Prime Minister selected the title which was to be bestowed upon his wife and was ultimately to be his own. The coincidence is curious, but significant of nothing more than Disraeli's association with the Beaconsfield district of Buckinghamshire. More suggestive as a presage of coming greatness is the quotation from " The Merry Wives of Windsor " which the young writer placed upon his title page; Why, then, the world's mine oyster. Which I with sword will open. The words were spoken by Pistol in reply to Falstaff's refusal to lend him a penny, and they find a parallel in Vivian Grey's lament that " the want of a few rascal counters '* should spoil his chances in life. The book brought some " rascal counters " to Disraeli, and it led people to talk about him, but its real interest is not intrinsic.

When the oyster was at last opened for him, or by him. and his character became an enigma that all men -wished to understand, says the Glasgow Herald, public; curiosity was directed to the point of the sword with which he had at first attempted an operation then more difficult than it is now, and " Vivien Grey " was eagerly read for trim light it turned upon its author. That interest remains now that he has passed into history, and the novel that enlivened the season of 1826 has become a biographical document.