Benjamin Disraeli | Autograph letter signed, to Georgina Meredith, on the death of her brother, 1831

Benjamin Disraeli

Autograph letter signed, to Georgina Meredith, announcing the death of her brother

headed "READ THIS ALONE", a moving letter— almost a literary composition— announcing the death of her brother, William, going on to describe the days before Meredith's illness began ("...He returned to Cairo in the finest health & spirits: never was he looking better, never more cheerful..."), the onset of the fever, the ministrations of the doctor, Gaetani, from the military hospital ("...in every respect a man of skill, education & experience..."), the smallpox which developed on the third day ("...a kind that never was fatal..."), Meredith's decline and death and Disraeli's own inexpressible grief, "...After a night of horror I rise with the determination of doing my duty which is imperative—I write to you therefore without loss of time, because tomorrow I may be unable— I will not attempt to console you. Find consolation in your own heart. I would willingly have given my life for his, for his was much more precious...Farewell, farewell! What, what is life if it lead only to such agony. Farewell! I wish that I could mingle the tears I am fast shedding with your own...", 4 pages, 4to, Cairo, 20 July 1831, [with:] separate address leaf simply addressed "Miss Meredith" and therefore probably enclosed in another letter, original chisel slits, light spotting

A heartfelt and emotional letter informing Georgina Meredith of the death of her brother William. Disraeli's sister was engaged to William, and his death while they were travelling in Egypt was a source of great grief and anguish for him.

"My Dear Georgina! There are crises in life which require all our energy to endure, & yet under which, when mellowed by Time, by Sympathy, by Reason, & by Religion, we are sometimes not ungrateful that a benevolent Nature has permitted us to support ourselves. One of these crises has now arrived for us all; and it will require all that strength of mind which I have ever observed in you, & all those delightful & amicable feelings, which we have long acknowledged with admiration, to support it yourself, to communicate its import to your family, & to strengthen & to solace them under its irresistible & overwhelming affliction. The fatal quickness of an affectionate mind has already whispered to you the dreadful truth. Yes! my dear, & much loved friend, it is indeed too true— Our William is lost to us—That friend of our lives, that joy, & hope, & expectation, can no more sweeten our existence with his Society, enliven us with his presence, & gladden us with his promise— All is over, & he has yielded to his Creator without a bodily, or mental, pang, that pure, & honorable, & upright, soul, which we all so honored & esteemed: he has suddenly closed a life unsullied by a vice, scarcely by a weakness. Such a death is too awful but for those who are virtuous as himself, & if we regret that the unconsciousness of his approaching fate has occasioned him to quit us without leaving some last memento of his affection, let us console ourselves by the recollection of the anguish, that the same cause has spared him...".

PROVENANCE:

Sotheby's, London, 23 July 1979, lot 199