Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 15.djvu/124

 researches. In 1791 he issued anonymously the first volume of his ‘Curiosities of Literature, consisting of Anecdotes, Characters, Sketches, and Observations, Literary, Critical, and Historical.’ D'Israeli was following the example of his friend Andrews and of William Seward. He presented the copyright to his publisher, John Murray, of 32 Fleet Street (father of John Murray of Albemarle Street), but the book had an immediate success, and D'Israeli repurchased the copyright at a sale a few years later. A second volume was added in 1793, a third in 1817, two more in 1823, and a sixth and last in 1834. The work was repeatedly revised and reissued in D'Israeli's lifetime (3rd edit. 1793, 7th edit. 1823, 9th edit. 1834, 12th edit. 1841). Similar compilations followed, and achieved like success. ‘A Dissertation on Anecdotes’ appeared in 1793, ‘An Essay on the Literary Character’ in 1795 (3rd edit. 1822, 4th 1828), ‘Miscellanies, or Literary Recollections,’ dedicated to Dr. Hugh Downman [q. v.], in 1796, ‘Calamities of Authors’ in 1812–13, ‘Quarrels of Authors’ in 1814. D'Israeli also tried his hand at romances, but these were never very popular. No less than three were published in 1797, viz.: ‘Vaurien: a Sketch of the Times,’ 2 vols.; ‘Flim-Flams, or the Life of my Uncle;’ and ‘Mejnoun and Leila, the Arabian Petrarch and Laura.’ The first two, published anonymously, included general discussions on contemporary topics, and were condemned as Voltairean in tone. ‘Mejnoun and Leila’ is doubtfully stated to be the earliest oriental romance in the language. Sir William Ouseley seems to have drawn D'Israeli's attention to the Persian poem whence the plot was derived, and he acknowledges assistance from Douce. This tale was translated into German (Leipzig, 1804). With two others (‘Love and Humility’ and ‘The Lovers’), and ‘a poetical essay on romance,’ it was republished in 1799; a fourth tale (‘The Daughter’) was added to a second edition of the collection in 1801. D'Israeli's last novel, ‘Despotism, or the Fall of the Jesuits,’ appeared in 1811.

In 1795 D'Israeli's health gave way, and he spent three years in Devonshire, chiefly at Mount Radford, the house of John Baring, M.P. for Exeter. Dr. Hugh Downman of Exeter attended him, and doctor and patient became very intimate (cf. Notes and Queries, 5th ser. v. 508). On 10 Feb. 1802 D'Israeli married Maria, sister of George Basevi, whose son George [q. v.] was a well-known architect; the newly married couple settled for fifteen years at 6 King's Road, Bedford Row (now 22 Theobald's Road), London. Although no observer of Jewish customs, D'Israeli was until the age of forty-seven a member, like his father, of the London congregation of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews, and an annual contributor to its funds. On 3 Oct. 1813 the elders of the synagogue without consulting him elected him warden. D'Israeli declined to serve, and in a letter dated December 1813 expressed astonishment that an office whose duties were ‘repulsive to his feelings’ should have been conferred on ‘a man who has lived out of the sphere of your observations … who can never unite in your public worship because, as now conducted, it disturbs instead of exciting religious emotions’ (, Sketches of Anglo-Jewish Hist.) For refusal to accept the office of warden D'Israeli was fined by the elders 40l. In March 1814 he repudiated this obligation, but wrote that he was willing to continue the ordinary contributions. In 1817 the elders insisted on the payment of the fine, and D'Israeli resigned his membership of the congregation. His withdrawal was not formally accepted till 1821, when he paid up all arrears of dues down to 1817. His brother-in-law, George Basevi the elder, withdrew at the same time. D'Israeli's children were baptised at St. Andrew's, Holborn, in July and August 1817.

Meanwhile D'Israeli's reputation was growing. In 1816 he wrote, as ‘an affair of literary conscience,’ an apologetic ‘Inquiry into the Literary and Political Character of James I.’ In 1820 he noticed ‘Spence's Anecdotes’ in the ‘Quarterly Review,’ and sought to vindicate Pope's moral and literary character. The article excited the controversy about Pope in which Bowles, Campbell, Roscoe, and Byron took part. Between 1828 and 1830 appeared in five volumes D'Israeli's ‘Commentaries on the Life and Reign of Charles I.’ This is D'Israeli's most valuable work, and marked a distinct advance in the methods of historical research. He here consulted many diaries and letters (then unpublished), including the Eliot and Conway MSS. and the papers of Melchior de Sabran, French envoy in England in 1644–5. The ‘Mercure François’ was also laid under contribution. Southey says that in one of his ‘Quarterly’ articles he obscurely recommended such an undertaking to Dr. Christopher Wordsworth, who had written on the ‘Eikōn Basilikē,’ and that D'Israeli, assuming the hint to be addressed to himself, began his book (, Correspondence with C. Bowles, ed. Dowden, p. 239). Lord Nugent contested D'Israeli's royalist conclusions in his ‘Memorials of Hampden’ (1832), and D'Israeli replied in the same year in ‘Eliot, Hampden, and Pym.’ As the biographer of Charles I, D'Israeli was created D.C.L. at Oxford 4 July 1832.