The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume X Part 56

1. Apologues orientaux, par l'abbe Blanchet.

2. Melanges de litterature orientale, par Cardonne. (Paris, 2 vols. 1770.) 3. Nerar et Meloe, roman oriental, par H. B. Deblanes (1759).

4. Contes orientaux, par M. de la Dixmerie.

5. Les Cinq Cent Matinees et une demie, contes Syriens, par le chevalier de Duclos.

6. Aba.s.sai, conte oriental, par Mademoiselle Fault (ou Fauques) 1752.

7. Les Contes du Serail, par Mdlle. Fault (1753.) 8. Kara Mustapha, conte oriental, par Fromaget (1745).

9. Zilia et Cenie, par Francoise d'Isembourg d'Hippincourt de Graffigny.

10. Salned et Garalde, conte oriental, par A. H. De la Motte.

11. Anecdotes orientales, par G. Mailhol (2 vols. 1752).

12. Alzahel, traduit d'un ma.n.u.scrit arabe, par Mdlle. Raigne de Malfontaine (Mercure, 1773).

13. Mahmoud le Gasnevide, conte oriental, par J. F. Melon.

14. Contes Orientaux, ou les recits du Sage Caleb, voyageur persan, par Mme. Mouet.

15. Nadir, par A. G. de Montdorge.

16. Lettres Persanes, de Montesquieu.

17. Les Amus.e.m.e.nts de Jour, ou recueil de pet.i.ts contes, par Mme. de Mortemar.

18. Mirloh, conte oriental, par Martine de Morville (1769).

19. Ladila, anecdote turque (par la meme) 1769.

20. Daira, histoire orientale, par A. J. J. de la Riche de la Poupeliniere (1761).

21. Cara Mustapha, par de Preschat.

22. Des trois Nations, conte oriental, par Marianne Robert (1760).

23. Contes Orientaux, tires des ma.n.u.scrits de la Bibliotheque du Roi, 2 vols. 12mo (1749).

This is the same as the Count de Caylus' Oriental Tales. Sir R.

F. Burton has received the following memorandum, respecting a copy of an earlier edition of the same work: "Contes Orientaux, tires des ma.n.u.scrits de la Bibliotheque du Roy de France, ornes de figures en taille douce. A la Haye, 1743, 2 vols. 12mo, polished calf gilt, gilt edges, arms in gilt on the sides.

"The Preface says, ?M. Pet.i.t et M. Galland n'ont en aucune connaissance des ma.n.u.scrits dont cet ouvrage est tire.'

"The Tales are from the MSS. and translations sent by those despatched by the French Ministers to Constantinople to learn Arabic, &c., and so become fit to act as Dragomans and Interpreters to the French Emba.s.sy."

There is a copy of this work in the British Museum; it proves, as I expected, to be the series of tales subsequently attributed to the Count de Caylus.

In addition to the above, the following, of which I can only give the names, are mentioned in the Cabinet des Fees, but not reprinted:--

1. Alma-Moulin, conte oriental, 1779.

2. Gengiskan, histoire orientale, par M. de St. M.

3. Almanzor et Zelira, conte arabe, par M. Bret. (1772). {From "les mercures."} 4. Almerine et Zelima, ou les Dangers de la Beaute, conte orientale, 1773. {From "les mercures."} 5. Les Ames, conte arabe, par M. B--------. {From "les mercures."} 6. Balky, conte oriental, 1768. {From "les mercures."} 7. Mirza, ou Is necessite d'etre utile (1774). {From "les mercures."} 8. Zaman, histoire orientale, par M. B. {From "les mercures."} 9. Anecdotes Orientales, par Mayol, 1752.12mo.

10. Contes tres moguls.

11. Foka ou les Metamorphoses, conte chinois. Derobe a M.

de V. 1777. 12mo.

12. Mahulem, histoire orientale. 12mo, 1776.

13. Mille et une heure, contes Peruviens. 4 vols. 12mo, 1733.

14. Histoire de Khedy, Hermite de Mont Ararat. Conte orientale, traduit de l'Anglais, 12mo, 1777.

15. Zambeddin, histoire orientale. 12mo, 1768.

16. Zelmoille et Zulmis et Turlableu. Par M. l'Abbe de Voisem, 12mo, 1747.

17. Roman Oriental, Paris, 1753.

The remaining imitations, &c., known to me I shall place roughly in chronological order, premising that I fear the list must be very incomplete, and that I have met with very few except in English and French.

A.--French

1. Zadig, ou la Destinee, par Voltaire[FN#473] probably partakes of cla.s.ses 2 and 6; said to be partly based on Gueulette's "Soirees Bretonnes," published in 1712. The latter is included in Cabinet des Fees, Vol. 32.

2. Vathek, an Arabian Tale, by William Beckford. I include this book here because it was written and first published in French.

Its popularity was once very great, and it contains some effective pa.s.sages, though it belongs to Cla.s.s 2, and is rather a parody than an imitation of Oriental fiction. The Caliph Vathek, after committing many crimes at the instance of his mother, the witch Carathis, in order to propitiate Eblis, finally starts on an expedition to Istakar. On the way, he seduces Nouronihar, the beautiful daughter of the Emir Fakreddin, and carries her with him to the Palace of Eblis, where they am condemned to wander eternally, with their hearts surrounded with flames.

This idea (which is certainly not Oriental, so far as I know) took the fancy of Byron, who was a great admirer of Vathek, and he has mixed it with genuine Oriental features in a powerful pa.s.sage in the Giaour, beginning:

"But thou, false infidel! shalt writhe Beneath avenging Monkir's scythe; And from its torment 'scape alone To wander round lost Eblis' throne; And fire unquenched, unquenchable, Around, within thy heart shall dwell; Nor ear can hear, nor tongue can tell The tortures of that inward h.e.l.l!" &c.

How errors relative to Eastern matters are perpetuated is ill.u.s.trated by the fact that I have seen these lines quoted in some modern philosophical work as descriptive of the h.e.l.l in which the Mohammedans believe!

Southey, in Thalaba, b. 1., speaks of the Sarsar, "the Icy Wind of Death," an expression which he probably borrowed from Vathek.

3. The Count of Hamilton's Fairy Tales. Written shortly after the first publication of Galland's work. There is an English Translation among Bohn's Extra Volumes.

4. Les Mille et un Fadaises, par Cazotte. Cla.s.s 1. I have not seen them.

5. La Mille et deuxieme Nuit, par Theophilus Gautier (Paris, 1880). Probably Cla.s.s 1 or 2; I have not seen it.

B.--English.

1. The Vision of Mirza (Addison in the "Spectator"). Cla.s.s 3.

2. The Story of Amurath. Cla.s.s 3. I do not know the author. I read it in a juvenile book published about the end of last century, ent.i.tled the Pleasing Instructor.

3. The Persian Tales of Inatulla of Delhi. Published in 1768, by Colonel Alexander Dow at Edinburgh. A French translation appeared at Amsterdam in two vols. and in Paris in one vol.

(1769). Cla.s.s 6. Chiefly founded on a wellknown Persian work, of which a more correct, though still incomplete, version was published in 3 vols. by Jonathan Scott in 1799, under the t.i.tle of Bahar Da.n.u.sh, or Garden of Knowledge.

5. Ra.s.selas, by Samuel Johnson. Cla.s.s 3. Too well known to need comment.

6. Almoran and Hamet, by Dr. Hawksworth. Cla.s.s 3. Very popular at the beginning of the present century, but now forgotten.

7. Oriental Fairy Tales (London, 1853). Cla.s.s 4. A series of very pretty fairy tales, by an anonymous author, in which the scene is laid in the East (especially Egypt).

8. The Shaving of s.h.a.gpat, by George Meredith (London, 1855).

Cla.s.s 5. I prefer this to most other imitations of an Oriental tale.

9. The Thousand and One Humbugs. Cla.s.ses 1 and 2. Published in "Household Words," vol. xi. (1855) pp. 265-267, 289-292, 313-316.

Parodies on Nos. 1, 195, 6d, and 6e,f.