The King of Schnorrers

The King of Schnorrers is Israel Zangwill's 1894 picaresque novel,[1] a collection of amusing tragicomic episodes of schnorring by "Manasseh Bueno Barzillai Azevedo da Costa, thenceforward universally recognised, and hereby handed down to tradition, as the King of Schnorrers", in England on the break of 18th/19th centuries, illustrated by Jewish prints and caricatures of the period.

[1] A significant component of Zangwill's humor are the traditions of charity and mutual responsibility in Jewish communities.

"Properly exploited by a fertile intelligence like Menasseh’s, this attitude enables the ostensible mendicant to become the actual master in the eleemosynary relationship," wrote Hindus.

It was not published and thought to be lost until Edna Nahshon of Jewish Theological Seminary of America discovered it (with some other Zangwill's originals) and it is now at deposit in the British Library.

[4][5] Bernard Herrmann wrote a musical comedy based on Zangwill's novel in 1968, which ran on Broadway for a short time in 1979.

Manasseh da Costa and Yankele: "Vat more proof do you vant of my begging powers?" demanded Yankele, spreading out his palms and shrugging his shoulders.