Disraeli-3

10.
Sometimes political hostility took on more personal forms. One jibed at him that his wife had picked him out of the gutter. His reply was a model of incisive wit delivered in his customary cool and unflappable composure. Dizzy replied,”My dear fellow, if you were in the gutter nobody would pick you out”.
11.
His power of ridicule when given a cause was superb and he could floor anyone whether in the House or outside with a verbal thrust. By nature he was genial and never went out to aggravate the feeling of those whom he disliked. Once in the House he chose to ignore a vicious attack of one whom despised with an excuse,”I have given him the mercy of my silence.”

12.
His sudden surges of eloquence which amazed people who he met before he became a power in politics is scarcely ever heard now. By the time his ascendency over his party was complete he had fixed in place the persona that characterised him henceforth: calm dignified and sphinx-like. Only his flashing eyes gave life to the face;his talk being measured, grave epigrammatic and delivered in a deep equable tone.
He was a master of prose and in his lifetime his novels were much talked about. He was also a master of verbal duel in which he never chopped where he could slice with his nimble wit.
13.

None of his novels area work of genius but they are the works of a genius. He had the poetic temperament without the poetic talents. His novels are so many attempts to reveal his feelings in his evolutions as a statesman. Lack of flesh and blood in his characters were to a certain extent saved by his coruscating wit.He once wrote:’ Nobody should ever look anxious except those who have no anxiety.”
14.
In his twilight years, whenever his illness and his duties permitted,Dizzy continued to dine out and deliver some deathless quips. Once when he was asked whether he read a novel that was making a stir, the author of Vivien Grey, Alroy, Coningsby, Lothair and Sybil replied,” When I want to read a novel I write one.”
compiler:benny