Isaac Disraeli - Curiosities of Literature (Vol. 1-3)

Isaac Disraeli

Complete Edition

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Volume 1 VOLUME 1 Table of Contents

Volume 2

Volume 2

Table of Contents Table of Contents Volume 1 VOLUME 1 Table of Contents Volume 2 Volume 2

ADVERTISEMENT. ADVERTISEMENT. Table of Contents This is the first collected edition of a series of works which have separately attained to a great popularity: volumes that have been always delightful to the young and ardent inquirer after knowledge. They offer as a whole a diversified miscellany of literary, artistic, and political history, of critical disquisition and biographic anecdote, such as it is believed cannot be elsewhere found gathered together in a form so agreeable and so attainable. To this edition is appended a Life of the Author by his son, also original notes, which serve to illustrate or to correct the text, where more recent discoveries have brought to light facts unknown when these volumes were originally published. London, 1881. ISAAC DISRAELI.

ON THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF MR. DISRAELI.

PREFACE.

LIBRARIES.

THE BIBLIOMANIA.

LITERARY JOURNALS.

RECOVERY OF MANUSCRIPTS.

SKETCHES OF CRITICISM.

THE PERSECUTED LEARNED.

POVERTY OF THE LEARNED.

IMPRISONMENT OF THE LEARNED.

AMUSEMENTS OF THE LEARNED.

PORTRAITS OF AUTHORS.

DESTRUCTION OF BOOKS.

SOME NOTICES OF LOST WORKS.

QUODLIBETS, OR SCHOLASTIC DISQUISITIONS.

FAME CONTEMNED.

THE SIX FOLLIES OF SCIENCE.

IMITATORS.

CICERO'S PUNS.

PREFACES.

EARLY PRINTING.

ERRATA.

PATRONS.

POETS, PHILOSOPHERS, AND ARTISTS, MADE BY ACCIDENT.

INEQUALITIES OF GENIUS.

GEOGRAPHICAL STYLE.

LEGENDS.

THE PORT-ROYAL SOCIETY.

THE PROGRESS OF OLD AGE IN NEW STUDIES.

SPANISH POETRY.

SAINT EVREMOND.

MEN OF GENIUS DEFICIENT IN CONVERSATION.

VIDA.

THE SCUDERIES.

DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULT.

PRIOR'S HANS CARVEL.

THE STUDENT IN THE METROPOLIS.

THE TALMUD.

RABBINICAL STORIES.

ON THE CUSTOM OF SALUTING AFTER SNEEZING.

BONAVENTURE DE PERIERS.

GROTIUS.

NOBLEMEN TURNED CRITICS.

LITERARY IMPOSTURES.

CARDINAL RICHELIEU.

ARISTOTLE AND PLATO.

ABELARD AND ELOISA.

PHYSIOGNOMY.

CHARACTERS DESCRIBED BY MUSICAL NOTES.

MILTON.

ORIGIN OF NEWSPAPERS.

TRIALS AND PROOFS OF GUILT IN SUPERSTITIOUS AGES.

THE INQUISITION.

SINGULARITIES OBSERVED BY VARIOUS NATIONS IN THEIR REPASTS.

MONARCHS.

OF THE TITLES OF ILLUSTRIOUS, HIGHNESS, AND EXCELLENCE.

TITLES OF SOVEREIGNS.

ROYAL DIVINITIES.

DETHRONED MONARCHS

FEUDAL CUSTOMS.

GAMING.

THE ARABIC CHRONICLE.

METEMPSYCHOSIS.

SPANISH ETIQUETTE.

THE GOTHS AND HUNS.

VICARS OF BRAY.

DOUGLAS.

CRITICAL HISTORY OF POVERTY.

SOLOMON AND SHEBA.

HELL.

THE ABSENT MAN.

PASQUIN AND MARFORIO.

FEMALE BEAUTY AND ORNAMENTS.

MODERN PLATONISM.

ANECDOTES OF FASHION.

A SENATE OF JESUITS.

THE LOVER'S HEART.

THE HISTORY OF GLOVES.

RELICS OF SAINTS.

PERPETUAL LAMPS OF THE ANCIENTS.

NATURAL PRODUCTIONS RESEMBLING ARTIFICIAL COMPOSITIONS.

THE POETICAL GARLAND OF JULIA.

TRAGIC ACTORS.

JOCULAR PREACHERS.

MASTERLY IMITATORS.

EDWARD THE FOURTH.

ELIZABETH.

THE CHINESE LANGUAGE.

MEDICAL MUSIC.

MINUTE WRITING.

NUMERICAL FIGURES.

ENGLISH ASTROLOGERS.

ALCHYMY.

TITLES OF BOOKS.

LITERARY FOLLIES.

LITERARY CONTROVERSY.

LITERARY BLUNDERS.

A LITERARY WIFE.

PHILOSOPHICAL DESCRIPTIVE POEMS.

PAMPHLETS.

LITTLE BOOKS.

A CATHOLIC'S REFUTATION.

THE GOOD ADVICE OF AN OLD LITERARY SINNER.

MYSTERIES, MORALITIES, FARCES, AND SOTTIES.

LOVE AND FOLLY, AN ANCIENT MORALITY.

RELIGIOUS NOUVELLETTES.

"CRITICAL SAGACITY," AND "HAPPY CONJECTURE;" OR, BENTLEY'S MILTON.

A JANSENIST DICTIONARY.

MANUSCRIPTS AND BOOKS.

THE TURKISH SPY.

SPENSER, JONSON, AND SHAKSPEARE.

BEN JONSON, FELTHAM, AND RANDOLPH.

ARIOSTO AND TASSO.

BAYLE.

CERVANTES.

MAGLIABECHI.

ABRIDGERS.

PROFESSORS OF PLAGIARISM AND OBSCURITY.

LITERARY DUTCH.

THE PRODUCTIONS OF THE MIND NOT SEIZABLE BY CREDITORS.

CRITICS.

ANECDOTES OF CENSURED AUTHORS.

VIRGINITY.

A GLANCE INTO THE FRENCH ACADEMY.

POETICAL AND GRAMMATICAL DEATHS.

SCARRON.

PETER CORNEILLE.

POETS.

ROMANCES.

THE ASTREA.

POETS LAUREAT.

ANGELO POLITIAN.

ORIGINAL LETTER OF QUEEN ELIZABETH.

ANNE BULLEN.

JAMES THE FIRST.

GENERAL MONK AND HIS WIFE.

PHILIP AND MARY.

Table of Contents

This is the first collected edition of a series of works which have separately attained to a great popularity: volumes that have been always delightful to the young and ardent inquirer after knowledge. They offer as a whole a diversified miscellany of literary, artistic, and political history, of critical disquisition and biographic anecdote, such as it is believed cannot be elsewhere found gathered together in a form so agreeable and so attainable. To this edition is appended a Life of the Author by his son, also original notes, which serve to illustrate or to correct the text, where more recent discoveries have brought to light facts unknown when these volumes were originally published.

London, 1881.

ISAAC DISRAELI.

Table of Contents

BY HIS SON.

The traditionary notion that the life of a man of letters is necessarily deficient in incident, appears to have originated in a misconception of the essential nature of human action. The life of every man is full of incidents, but the incidents are insignificant, because they do not affect his species; and in general the importance of every occurrence is to be measured by the degree with which it is recognised by mankind. An author may influence the fortunes of the world to as great an extent as a statesman or a warrior; and the deeds and performances by which this influence is created and exercised, may rank in their interest and importance with the decisions of great Congresses, or the skilful valour of a memorable field. M. de Voltaire was certainly a greater Frenchman than Cardinal Fleury, the Prime Minister of France in his time. His actions were more important; and it is certainly not too much to maintain that the exploits of Homer, Aristotle, Dante, or my Lord Bacon, were as considerable events as anything that occurred at Actium, Lepanto, or Blenheim. A Book may be as great a thing as a battle, and there are systems of philosophy that have produced as great revolutions as any that have disturbed even the social and political existence of our centuries.

The life of the author, whose character and career we are venturing to review, extended far beyond the allotted term of man: and, perhaps, no existence of equal duration ever exhibited an uniformity more sustained. The strong bent of his infancy was pursued through youth, matured in manhood, and maintained without decay to an advanced old age. In the biographic spell, no ingredient is more magical than predisposition. How pure, and native, and indigenous it was in the character of this writer, can only be properly appreciated by an acquaintance with the circumstances amid which he was born, and by being able to estimate how far they could have directed or developed his earliest inclinations.