In
January 1844, the ambitious Tory politician Benjamin Disraeli published a long
political novel Coningsby whose characters were so obviously based on
real people that a A New Key to the Characters in Coningsby was promptly
published: the character of Mr Ormsby was based on the very wealthy and not
very popular Tory MP Quintin Dick and the Marquess of Monmouth was the Marquess
of Hertford, even wealthier but more agreeable; he had long been Quintin Dick’s
political patron. Both appear elsewhere on this site thanks to an old dealer postal history stock which I acquired and which contained over fifty letters addressed to Dick.
On
May 27 1844, Disraeli penned a scrappy note and half-apology to Quintin Dick
which is transcribed below; it lacks the original envelope. The passage in Coningsby
to which it relates is probably this: “All this time Mr Ormsby, as the
friend of Lord and Lady Monmouth, remained shaking his head; but as a member of
society, and therefore delighting in small scandal, appropriating the gossip
with the greatest avidity”.
Ambitious
politicians need friends as well as enemies and the second, longer letter to
Quintin Dick written in December 1845 by Mrs Disraeli may well constitute
out-reach work on her husband’s behalf. The handwriting is among the worst I
have encountered and I am grateful to Professor Daisy Hay for breaking off from
other things to provide a first draft transcription with queried words, of
which I have been able to unquery some at the cost of enormous effort. The complete Key to the Characters will have
to wait on someone else’s work.
There
are two main elements to the letter: first, Mrs Disraeli invites Dick to join
them in Paris (at what seems to me rather short notice); and, second, the
stress she places on the fact that Disraeli is moving in the highest circles of
French government and society, something which would surely impress the
status-conscious Quintin Dick. The letter does not provide a year date and the
postmark on the envelope is illegible; but the reference it contains to a
walking trip matches the one described in Daisy Hay’s Mr and Mrs Disraeli and
allows the letter to be dated to December 1845 at which time Disraeli held no
office other than that of M.P.
The
cast of characters named include Lord Howden who was second Baron Howden (1799-1873).
The disreputable Earl of Pembroke was separated from his wife and living in
Parisian exile; every source tells me that in 1845 he was in a long-term
relationship with a ballet dancer Marie Catherine Caroline (Elisa) Schäffer,
with whom he already had children, one born in 1844 and the next in 1845. But
the name of his partner in the letter cannot be made to match; it definitely
looks like “Laffarge” and, to make it worse, I cannot get a reading of the L[ord]
or possibly Laft] who is the informant.
However,
to pursue the matter down the rabbit hole: in 1840 a cause celèbre French murder
trial had at its centre a Madame Lafarge who was convicted of murdering her
husband by arsenic poisoning. It was a notorious case and Mrs Disraeli may be
likening Pembroke’s ballet dancer to the celebrated arsenic poisoner whose guilt
was still being disputed.
At
the end of the letter, the best match for “Sir L B” is Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer,
a peripatetic British diplomat from a well-known family who had a posting
in Paris.
The
French Comte Poutarlis matches the “M. P—s” whose picture gallery Coningsby
goes to visit in Chapter 5, Book 8 of Coningsby and who is indeed a real
person known to Wikipedia as James-Alexandre de Pourtalès, Comte de
Pourtalès-Gorgier (1776-1855), a Swiss-French banker, diplomat and
art collector with a Parisian mansion built for himself and his collections on
rue Tronchet. Voilà!
Transcriptions
First
Letter
My
dear Dick
I
confess to the personal attack you have discovered. I certainly was thinking of
my Dear dear little wife when I wrote p 207
Yours
ever Disraeli
Gros[venor]
Gate
May
27 ‘44
The
new edit[ion] is printed & will be out in 8 & 40 hours.
Second
Letter
Datelined: Decr 16th Hotel de l’Europe Rue de Rivoli
Addressed
to: Quintin Dick Esqr M.P. 20 Curzon
Street May Fair London
Postmarked
PARIS but date illegible; part LONDON receiver mark
Flap
missing, appears not to have been pre-paid with 10d charged on delivery.
My
dear Mr Dick
Nearly
two years ago you promis’d to come to Paris when we were here, so I hope
nothing will prevent you from doing so, for I am sure you will enjoy all the
bustle and gaiity as much as we do: dinners & parties without end.
Madame
L. de Rothschild gives her grand ball in about ten days time, which of its self
is worth coming here to see: we dined with them last week, but even Dizzys pen
could not convey to you a full idia of that gorgeous banquet – I sat next to
the Comte Pontarlis whose gallery you may remember Coningsby whent to see – he
expressed himself much honoured & we find the Comte most interesting &
agreeable – for two months before we came here, we enjoy’d ourselves in the
most perfect seclusion - & walked three hundred miles at Cassel, what do
you think of that – but I suppose you can think now only be thinking of
who is to be the Premier, what confusion! did you ever know the like? no one
here ventures to form an opinion, so tell me all you think & hear.
Dis continues in high favor at Court, the last time he was there, Saturday Evng,
there was a grand concert only their own family & the Court circle, how
regal.
Lord
Howden is here whom you must know, in his former Hotel & gives charming
dinners. Also Lord Pembroke with his Madame Laffarge [?] who, Lord … [?] says, he is more devoted to than ever
& has taken a house for 3 years to be out of the way of his friends.
I
was happy to hear from Mr Moore that you were quite well & had had been ………
With
every kind wish
Sincerely
yours Mary Anne Disraeli
Sir
L B. has just come in, on his way to Naples
References
Daisy Hay, Mr
and Mrs Disraeli: A Strange Romance (2015)
Wikipedia: Louis Philippe I
Wikipedia: James-Alexandre de Pourtalès
Wikipedia: Robert Herbert, 12th Earl of Pembroke
Wikipedia: John Hobart Caradoc, 2nd Baron Howden
Wikipedia: Henry Bulwer, 1st Baron Dalling and Bulwer
Wikipedia: Quintin Dick
Wikipedia: Francis Seymour-Conway, 3rd Marquess of Hertford
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