Cyrus Thomas - "Notes on Certain Maya and Mexican Manuscripts"

Charles King - "Marion's Faith."

Charles G. D. Roberts - "Earth's Enigmas"

Henry van Dyke - "The Unruly Sprite"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

Coningsby

B >> Benjamin Disraeli >> Coningsby




The wind met them as they returned, the breeze blew rather freshly.
Lucretia all of a sudden seemed touched with unusual emotion. She was
alarmed lest Lord Monmouth should catch cold; she took a kerchief from her
own well-turned throat to tie round his neck. He feebly resisted,
evidently much pleased.

The Princess Lucretia was highly accomplished. In the evening, having
refused several distinguished guests, but instantly yielding to the
request of Lord Monmouth, she sang. It was impossible to conceive a
contralto of more thrilling power, or an execution more worthy of the
voice. Coningsby, who was not experienced in fine singing, listened as if
to a supernatural lay, but all agreed it was of the highest class of
nature and of art; and the Grand-duke was in raptures. Lucretia received
even his Highness' compliments with a graceful indifference. Indeed, to
those who watched her demeanour, it might be remarked that she seemed to
yield to none, although all bowed before her.

Madame Colonna, who was always kind to Coningsby, expressed to him her
gratification from the party of the morning. It must have been delightful,
she assured Coningsby, for Lord Monmouth to have had both Lucretia and his
grandson with him; and Lucretia too, she added, must have been so pleased.

Coningsby could not make out why Madame Colonna was always intimating to
him that the Princess Lucretia took such great interest in his existence,
looked forward with such gratification to his society, remembered with so
much pleasure the past, anticipated so much happiness from the future. It
appeared to him that he was to Lucretia, if not an object of repugnance,
as he sometimes fancied, certainly one only of absolute indifference; but
he said nothing. He had already lived long enough to know that it is
unwise to wish everything explained.

In the meantime his life was agreeable. Every day, he found, added to his
acquaintance. He was never without a companion to ride or to shoot with;
and of riding Coningsby was very fond. His grandfather, too, was
continually giving him goodnatured turns, and making him of consequence in
the Castle: so that all the guests were fully impressed with the
importance of Lord Monmouth's grandson. Lady St. Julians pronounced him
distinguished; the Ambassadress thought diplomacy should be his part, as
he had a fine person and a clear brain; Madame Colonna spoke of him always
as if she took intense interest in his career, and declared she liked him
almost as much as Lucretia did; the Russians persisted in always styling
him 'the young Marquess,' notwithstanding the Ambassador's explanations;
Mrs. Guy Flouncey made a dashing attack on him; but Coningsby remembered a
lesson which Lady Everingham had graciously bestowed on him. He was not to
be caught again easily. Besides, Mrs. Guy Flouncey laughed a little too
much, and talked a little too loud.

As time flew on, there were changes of visitors, chiefly among the single
men. At the end of the first week after Coningsby's arrival, Lord Eskdale
appeared, bringing with him Lucian Gay; and soon after followed the
Marquess of Beaumanoir and Mr. Melton. These were all heroes who, in their
way, interested the ladies, and whose advent was hailed with general
satisfaction. Even Lucretia would relax a little to Lord Eskdale. He was
one of her oldest friends, and with a simplicity of manner which amounted
almost to plainness, and with rather a cynical nonchalance in his carriage
towards men, Lord Eskdale was invariably a favourite with women. To be
sure his station was eminent; he was noble, and very rich, and very
powerful, and these are qualities which tell as much with the softer as
the harsher sex; but there are individuals with all these qualities who
are nevertheless unpopular with women. Lord Eskdale was easy, knew the
world thoroughly, had no prejudices, and, above all, had a reputation for
success. A reputation for success has as much influence with women as a
reputation for wealth has with men. Both reputations may be, and often
are, unjust; but we see persons daily make good fortunes by them all the
same. Lord Eskdale was not an impostor; and though he might not have been
so successful a man had he not been Lord Eskdale, still, thrown over by a
revolution, he would have lighted on his legs.

The arrival of this nobleman was the occasion of giving a good turn to
poor Flora. He went immediately to see his friend Villebecque and his
troop. Indeed it was a sort of society which pleased Lord Eskdale more
than that which is deemed more refined. He was very sorry about 'La
Petite;' but thought that everything would come right in the long run; and
told Villebecque that he was glad to hear him well spoken of here,
especially by the Marquess, who seemed to take to him. As for Flora, he
was entirely against her attempting the stage again, at least for the
present, but as she was a good musician, he suggested to the Princess
Lucretia one night, that the subordinate aid of Flora might be of service
to her, and permit her to favour her friends with some pieces which
otherwise she must deny to them. This suggestion was successful; Flora was
introduced occasionally, soon often, to their parties in the evening, and
her performances were in every respect satisfactory. There was nothing to
excite the jealousy of Lucretia either in her style or her person. And yet
she sang well enough, and was a quiet, refined, retiring, by no means
disagreeable person. She was the companion of Lucretia very often in the
morning as well as in the illumined saloon; for the Princess was devoted
to the art in which she excelled. This connexion on the whole contributed
to the happiness of poor Flora. True it was, in the evening she often
found herself sitting or standing alone and no one noticing her; she had
no dazzling quality to attract men of fashion, who themselves love to
worship ever the fashionable. Even their goddesses must be _a la mode_.
But Coningsby never omitted an opportunity to show Flora some kindness
under these circumstances. He always came and talked to her, and praised
her singing, and would sometimes hand her refreshments and give her his
arm if necessary. These slight attentions coming from the grandson of Lord
Monmouth were for the world redoubled in their value, though Flora thought
only of their essential kindness; all in character with that first visit
which dwelt on the poor girl's memory, though it had long ago escaped that
of her visitor. For in truth Coningsby had no other impulse for his
conduct but kind-heartedness.

Thus we have attempted to give some faint idea how life glided away at the
Castle the first fortnight that Coningsby passed there. Perhaps we ought
not to omit that Mrs. Guy Flouncey, to the infinite disgust of Lady St.
Julians, who had a daughter with her, successfully entrapped the devoted
attentions of the young Marquess of Beaumanoir, who was never very
backward if a lady would take trouble enough; while his friend, Mr.
Melton, whose barren homage Lady St. Julians wished her daughter ever
particularly to shun, employed all his gaiety, good-humour, frivolity, and
fashion in amusing that young lady, and with irresistible effect. For the
rest, they continued, though they had only partridges to shoot, to pass
the morning without weariness. The weather was fine; the stud numerous;
all might be mounted. The Grand-duke and his suite, guided by Mr. Rigby,
had always some objects to visit, and railroads returned them just in time
for the banquet with an appetite which they had earned, and during which
Rigby recounted their achievements, and his own opinions.

The dinner was always firstrate; the evening never failed; music, dancing,
and the theatre offered great resources independently of the soul-subduing
sentiment harshly called flirtation, and which is the spell of a country
house. Lord Monmouth was satisfied, for he had scarcely ever felt wearied.
All that he required in life was to be amused; perhaps that was not all he
required, but it was indispensable. Nor was it wonderful that on the
present occasion he obtained his purpose, for there were half a hundred of
the brightest eyes and quickest brains ever on the watch or the whirl to
secure him distraction. The only circumstance that annoyed him was the
non-arrival of Sidonia. Lord Monmouth could not bear to be disappointed.
He could not refrain from saying, notwithstanding all the resources and
all the exertions of his guests,

'I cannot understand why Sidonia does not come. I wish Sidonia were here.'

'So do I,' said Lord Eskdale; 'Sidonia is the only man who tells one
anything new.'

'We saw Sidonia at Lord Studcaster's,' said Lord Beaumanoir. 'He told
Melton he was coming here.'

'You know he has bought all Studcaster's horses,' said Mr. Melton.

'I wonder he does not buy Studcaster himself,' said Lord Monmouth; 'I
would if I were he; Sidonia can buy anything,' he turned to Mrs. Guy
Flouncey.

'I wonder who Sidonia is,' thought Mrs. Guy Flouncey, but she was
determined no one should suppose she did not know.

At length one day Coningsby met Madame Colonna in the vestibule before
dinner.

'Milor is in such good temper, Mr. Coningsby,' she said; 'Monsieur de
Sidonia has arrived.'

About ten minutes before dinner there was a stir in the chamber. Coningsby
looked round. He saw the Grand-duke advancing, and holding out his hand in
a manner the most gracious. A gentleman, of distinguished air, but with
his back turned to Coningsby, was bowing as he received his Highness'
greeting. There was a general pause in the room. Several came forward:
even the Marquess seemed a little moved. Coningsby could not resist the
impulse of curiosity to see this individual of whom he had heard so much.
He glided round the room, and caught the countenance of his companion in
the forest inn; he who announced to him, that 'the Age of Ruins was past.'




CHAPTER X.


Sidonia was descended from a very ancient and noble family of Arragon,
that, in the course of ages, had given to the state many distinguished
citizens. In the priesthood its members had been peculiarly eminent.
Besides several prelates, they counted among their number an Archbishop of
Toledo; and a Sidonia, in a season of great danger and difficulty, had
exercised for a series of years the paramount office of Grand Inquisitor.

Yet, strange as it may sound, it is nevertheless a fact, of which there is
no lack of evidence, that this illustrious family during all this period,
in common with two-thirds of the Arragonese nobility, secretly adhered to
the ancient faith and ceremonies of their fathers; a belief in the unity
of the God of Sinai, and the rights and observances of the laws of Moses.

Whence came those Mosaic Arabs whose passages across the strait from
Africa to Europe long preceded the invasion of the Mohammedan Arabs, it is
now impossible to ascertain. Their traditions tell us that from time
immemorial they had sojourned in Africa; and it is not improbable that
they may have been the descendants of some of the earlier dispersions;
like those Hebrew colonies that we find in China, and who probably
emigrated from Persia in the days of the great monarchies. Whatever may
have been their origin in Africa, their fortunes in Southern Europe are
not difficult to trace, though the annals of no race in any age can detail
a history of such strange vicissitudes, or one rife with more touching and
romantic incident. Their unexampled prosperity in the Spanish Peninsula,
and especially in the south, where they had become the principal
cultivators of the soil, excited the jealousy of the Goths; and the
Councils of Toledo during the sixth and seventh centuries attempted, by a
series of decrees worthy of the barbarians who promulgated them, to root
the Jewish Arabs out of the land. There is no doubt the Council of Toledo
led, as directly as the lust of Roderick, to the invasion of Spain by the
Moslemin Arabs. The Jewish population, suffering under the most sanguinary
and atrocious persecution, looked to their sympathising brethren of the
Crescent, whose camps already gleamed on the opposite shore. The overthrow
of the Gothic kingdoms was as much achieved by the superior information
which the Saracens received from their suffering kinsmen, as by the
resistless valour of the Desert. The Saracen kingdoms were established.
That fair and unrivalled civilisation arose which preserved for Europe
arts and letters when Christendom was plunged in darkness. The children of
Ishmael rewarded the children of Israel with equal rights and privileges
with themselves. During these halcyon centuries, it is difficult to
distinguish the follower of Moses from the votary of Mahomet. Both alike
built palaces, gardens, and fountains; filled equally the highest offices
of the state, competed in an extensive and enlightened commerce, and
rivalled each other in renowned universities.

Even after the fall of the principal Moorish kingdoms, the Jews of Spain
were still treated by the conquering Goths with tenderness and
consideration. Their numbers, their wealth, the fact that, in Arragon
especially, they were the proprietors of the soil, and surrounded by
warlike and devoted followers, secured for them an usage which, for a
considerable period, made them little sensible of the change of dynasties
and religions. But the tempest gradually gathered. As the Goths grew
stronger, persecution became more bold. Where the Jewish population was
scanty they were deprived of their privileges, or obliged to conform under
the title of 'Nuevos Christianos.' At length the union of the two crowns
under Ferdinand and Isabella, and the fall of the last Moorish kingdom,
brought the crisis of their fate both to the New Christian and the
nonconforming Hebrew. The Inquisition appeared, the Institution that had
exterminated the Albigenses and had desolated Languedoc, and which, it
should ever be remembered, was established in the Spanish kingdoms against
the protests of the Cortes and amid the terror of the populace. The
Dominicans opened their first tribunal at Seville, and it is curious that
the first individuals they summoned before them were the Duke of Medina
Sidonia, the Marquess of Cadiz, and the Count of Arcos; three of the most
considerable personages in Spain. How many were burned alive at Seville
during the first year, how many imprisoned for life, what countless
thousands were visited with severe though lighter punishments, need not be
recorded here. In nothing was the Holy Office more happy than in multiform
and subtle means by which they tested the sincerity of the New Christians.

At length the Inquisition was to be extended to Arragon. The high-spirited
nobles of that kingdom knew that its institution was for them a matter of
life or death. The Cortes of Arragon appealed to the King and to the Pope;
they organised an extensive conspiracy; the chief Inquisitor was
assassinated in the cathedral of Saragossa. Alas! it was fated that in
this, one of the many, and continual, and continuing struggles between the
rival organisations of the North and the South, the children of the sun
should fall. The fagot and the San Benito were the doom of the nobles of
Arragon. Those who were convicted of secret Judaism, and this scarcely
three centuries ago, were dragged to the stake; the sons of the noblest
houses, in whose veins the Hebrew taint could be traced, had to walk in
solemn procession, singing psalms, and confessing their faith in the
religion of the fell Torquemada.

This triumph in Arragon, the almost simultaneous fall of the last Moorish
kingdom, raised the hopes of the pure Christians to the highest pitch.
Having purged the new Christians, they next turned their attention to the
old Hebrews. Ferdinand was resolved that the delicious air of Spain should
be breathed no longer by any one who did not profess the Catholic faith.
Baptism or exile was the alternative. More than six hundred thousand
individuals, some authorities greatly increase the amount, the most
industrious, the most intelligent, and the most enlightened of Spanish
subjects, would not desert the religion of their fathers. For this they
gave up the delightful land wherein they had lived for centuries, the
beautiful cities they had raised, the universities from which Christendom
drew for ages its most precious lore, the tombs of their ancestors, the
temples where they had worshipped the God for whom they had made this
sacrifice. They had but four months to prepare for eternal exile, after a
residence of as many centuries; during which brief period forced sales and
glutted markets virtually confiscated their property. It is a calamity
that the scattered nation still ranks with the desolations of
Nebuchadnezzar and of Titus. Who after this should say the Jews are by
nature a sordid people? But the Spanish Goth, then so cruel and so
haughty, where is he? A despised suppliant to the very race which he
banished, for some miserable portion of the treasure which their habits of
industry have again accumulated. Where is that tribunal that summoned
Medina Sidonia and Cadiz to its dark inquisition? Where is Spain? Its
fall, its unparalleled and its irremediable fall, is mainly to be
attributed to the expulsion of that large portion of its subjects, the
most industrious and intelligent, who traced their origin to the Mosaic
and Mohammedan Arabs.

The Sidonias of Arragon were Nuevos Christianos. Some of them, no doubt,
were burned alive at the end of the fifteenth century, under the system of
Torquemada; many of them, doubtless, wore the San Benito; but they kept
their titles and estates, and in time reached those great offices to which
we have referred.

During the long disorders of the Peninsular war, when so many openings
were offered to talent, and so many opportunities seized by the
adventurous, a cadet of a younger branch of this family made a large
fortune by military contracts, and supplying the commissariat of the
different armies. At the peace, prescient of the great financial future of
Europe, confident in the fertility of his own genius, in his original
views of fiscal subjects, and his knowledge of national resources, this
Sidonia, feeling that Madrid, or even Cadiz, could never be a base on
which the monetary transactions of the world could be regulated, resolved
to emigrate to England, with which he had, in the course of years, formed
considerable commercial connections. He arrived here after the peace of
Paris, with his large capital. He staked all he was worth on the Waterloo
loan; and the event made him one of the greatest capitalists in Europe.

No sooner was Sidonia established in England than he professed Judaism;
which Torquemada flattered himself, with the fagot and the San Benito, he
had drained out of the veins of his family more than three centuries ago.
He sent over, also, for several of his brothers, who were as good
Catholics in Spain as Ferdinand and Isabella could have possibly desired,
but who made an offering in the synagogue, in gratitude for their safe
voyage, on their arrival in England.

Sidonia had foreseen in Spain that, after the exhaustion of a war of
twenty-five years, Europe must require capital to carry on peace. He
reaped the due reward of his sagacity. Europe did require money, and
Sidonia was ready to lend it to Europe. France wanted some; Austria more;
Prussia a little; Russia a few millions. Sidonia could furnish them all.
The only country which he avoided was Spain; he was too well acquainted
with its resources. Nothing, too, would ever tempt him to lend anything to
the revolted colonies of Spain. Prudence saved him from being a creditor
of the mother-country; his Spanish pride recoiled from the rebellion of
her children.

It is not difficult to conceive that, after having pursued the career we
have intimated for about ten years, Sidonia had become one of the most
considerable personages in Europe. He had established a brother, or a near
relative, in whom he could confide, in most of the principal capitals. He
was lord and master of the money-market of the world, and of course
virtually lord and master of everything else. He literally held the
revenues of Southern Italy in pawn; and monarchs and ministers of all
countries courted his advice and were guided by his suggestions. He was
still in the vigour of life, and was not a mere money-making machine. He
had a general intelligence equal to his position, and looked forward to
the period when some relaxation from his vast enterprises and exertions
might enable him to direct his energies to great objects of public
benefit. But in the height of his vast prosperity he suddenly died,
leaving only one child, a youth still of tender years, and heir to the
greatest fortune in Europe, so great, indeed, that it could only be
calculated by millions.

Shut out from universities and schools, those universities and schools
which were indebted for their first knowledge of ancient philosophy to the
learning and enterprise of his ancestors, the young Sidonia was fortunate
in the tutor whom his father had procured for him, and who devoted to his
charge all the resources of his trained intellect and vast and varied
erudition. A Jesuit before the revolution; since then an exiled Liberal
leader; now a member of the Spanish Cortes; Rebello was always a Jew. He
found in his pupil that precocity of intellectual development which is
characteristic of the Arabian organisation. The young Sidonia penetrated
the highest mysteries of mathematics with a facility almost instinctive;
while a memory, which never had any twilight hours, but always reflected a
noontide clearness, seemed to magnify his acquisitions of ancient learning
by the promptness with which they could be reproduced and applied.

The circumstances of his position, too, had early contributed to give him
an unusual command over the modern languages. An Englishman, and taught
from his cradle to be proud of being an Englishman, he first evinced in
speaking his native language those remarkable powers of expression, and
that clear and happy elocution, which ever afterwards distinguished him.
But the son of a Spaniard, the sonorous syllables of that noble tongue
constantly resounded in his ear; while the foreign guests who thronged his
father's mansion habituated him from an early period of life to the tones
of languages that were not long strange to him. When he was nineteen,
Sidonia, who had then resided some time with his uncle at Naples, and had
made a long visit to another of his father's relatives at Frankfort,
possessed a complete mastery over the principal European languages.

At seventeen he had parted with Rebello, who returned to Spain, and
Sidonia, under the control of his guardians, commenced his travels. He
resided, as we have mentioned, some time in Germany, and then, having
visited Italy, settled at Naples, at which city it may be said he made his
entrance into life. With an interesting person, and highly accomplished,
he availed himself of the gracious attentions of a court of which he was
principal creditor; and which, treating him as a distinguished English
traveller, were enabled perhaps to show him some favours that the manners
of the country might not have permitted them to accord to his Neapolitan
relatives. Sidonia thus obtained at an early age that experience of
refined and luxurious society, which is a necessary part of a finished
education. It gives the last polish to the manners; it teaches us
something of the power of the passions, early developed in the hot-bed of
self-indulgence; it instils into us that indefinable tact seldom obtained
in later life, which prevents us from saying the wrong thing, and often
impels us to do the right.

Between Paris and Naples Sidonia passed two years, spent apparently in the
dissipation which was perhaps inseparable from his time of life. He was
admired by women, to whom he was magnificent, idolised by artists whom he
patronised, received in all circles with great distinction, and
appreciated for his intellect by the very few to whom he at all opened
himself. For, though affable and gracious, it was impossible to penetrate
him. Though unreserved in his manner, his frankness was strictly limited
to the surface. He observed everything, thought ever, but avoided serious
discussion. If you pressed him for an opinion, he took refuge in raillery,
or threw out some grave paradox with which it was not easy to cope.

The moment he came of age, Sidonia having previously, at a great family
congress held at Naples, made arrangements with the heads of the houses
that bore his name respecting the disposition and management of his vast
fortune, quitted Europe.

Sidonia was absent from his connections for five years, during which
period he never communicated with them. They were aware of his existence
only by the orders which he drew on them for payment, and which arrived
from all quarters of the globe. It would appear from these documents that
he had dwelt a considerable time in the Mediterranean regions; penetrated
Nilotic Africa to Sennaar and Abyssinia; traversed the Asiatic continent
to Tartary, whence he had visited Hindostan, and the isles of that Indian
Sea which are so little known. Afterwards he was heard of at Valparaiso,
the Brazils, and Lima. He evidently remained some time at Mexico, which he
quitted for the United States. One morning, without notice, he arrived in
London.

Copyright (c) 2007. topboookz.com. All rights reserved.