The Life of Sir Richard Burton Part 54

[Footnote 374: Burton's Report and Besant's Life of Palmer, p. 328.]

[Footnote 375: See Chapter vi., 22.]

[Footnote 376: Palmer translated only a few songs in Hafiz. Two will be found in that well-known Bibelot, Persian Love Songs.]

[Footnote 377: There were two editions of Mr. Payne's Villon. Burton is referring to the first.]

[Footnote 378: Augmentative of palazzo, a gentleman's house.]

[Footnote 379: We have altered this anecdote a little so as to prevent the possibility of the blanks being filled up.]

[Footnote 380: That which is knowable.]

[Footnote 381: Let it be remembered that the edition was (to quote the t.i.tle-page) printed by private subscription and for private circulation only and was limited to 500 copies at a high price. Consequently the work was never in the hands of the general public.]

[Footnote 382: This was a favourite saying of Burton's. We shall run against it elsewhere. See Chapter x.x.xiv., 159. Curiously enough, there is a similar remark in Mr. Payne's Study of Rabelais written eighteen years previous, and still unpublished.]

[Footnote 383: Practically there was only the wearisome, garbled, incomplete and incorrect translation by Dr. Weil.]

[Footnote 384: The Love of Jubayr and the Lady Budur, Burton's A. N. iv., 234; Lib. Ed., iii., 350; Payne's A. N., iv., 82.]

[Footnote 385: Three vols., 1884.]

[Footnote 386: The public were to some extent justified in their att.i.tude.

They feared that these books would find their way into the hands of others than bona fide students. Their fears, however, had no foundation.

In all the libraries visited by me extreme care was taken that none but the genuine student should see these books; and, of course, they are not purchasable anywhere except at prices which none but a student, obliged to have them, would dream of giving.]

[Footnote 387: He married in 1879, Ellinor, widow of James Alexander Guthrie, Esp., of Craigie, Forfarshire, and daughter of Admiral Sir James Stirling.]

[Footnote 388: Early Ideas by an Aryan, 1881. Alluded to by Burton in A. N., Lib. Ed., ix., 209, note.]

[Footnote 389: Persian Portraits, 1887. "My friend Arbuthnot's pleasant booklet, Persian Portraits," A. N. Lib. Ed. x., 190.]

[Footnote 390: Arabic Authors, 1890.]

[Footnote 391: In Kalidasa's Megha Duta he is referred to as riding on a peac.o.c.k.]

[Footnote 392: Sir William Jones. The Gopia correspond with the Roman Muses.]

[Footnote 393: The reader will recall Mr. Andrew Lang's witty remark in the preface to his edition of the Arabian Nights.]

[Footnote 394: Kalyana Mull.]

[Footnote 395: The hand of Burton betrays itself every here and there. Thus in Part 3 of the former we are referred to his Vikram and the Vampire for a note respecting the Gandharva-vivaha form of marriage. See Memorial Edition, p. 21.]

[Footnote 396: This G.o.ddess is adored as the patroness of the fine arts. See "A Hymn to Sereswaty," Poetical Works of Sir William Jones, Vol. ii., p. 123; also The Hindoo Pantheon, by Major Moor (Edward FitzGerald's friend).]

[Footnote 397: "Pleasant as nail wounds"--The Megha Duta, by Kalidasa.]

[Footnote 398: A girl married in her infancy.]

[Footnote 399: The Hindu women were in the habit, when their husbands were away, of braiding their hair into a single lock, called Veni, which was not to be unloosed until their return. There is a pretty reference to this custom in Kalidasa's Megha Duta.]

[Footnote 400: Guy de Maupasant, by Leo Tolstoy.]

[Footnote 401: The Kama Sutra.]

[Footnote 402: Richard Monckton Milnes, born 1809, created a peer 1863, died 1885. His life by T. Wemyss Reid appeared in 1891.]

[Footnote 403: Burton possessed copies of this work in Sanskrit, Mar'athi Guzrati, and Hindustani. He describes the last as "an unpaged 8vo. of 66 pages, including eight pages of most grotesque ill.u.s.trations." Burton's A. N., x., 202; Lib. Ed., viii., 183.]

[Footnote 404: Kullianmull.]

[Footnote 405: Memorial Edition, p. 96.]

[Footnote 406: The book has several times been reprinted. All copies, however, I believe, bear the date 1886. Some bear the imprint "Cosmopoli 1886."

[Footnote 407: See Chapter x.x.xii. It may be remembered also that Burton as good as denied that he translated The Priapeia.]

[Footnote 408: A portion of Miss Costello's rendering is given in the lovely little volume "Persian Love Songs," one of the Bibelots issued by Gay and Bird.]

[Footnote 409: Byron calls Sadi the Persian Catullus, Hafiz the Persian Anacreon, Ferdousi the Persian Homer.]

[Footnote 410: Eastwick, p. 13.]

[Footnote 411: Tales from the Arabic.]

[Footnote 412: That is in following the Arabic jingles. Payne's translation is in reality as true to the text as Burton's.]

[Footnote 413: By W. A. Clouston, 8vo., Glasgow, 1884. Only 300 copies printed.]

[Footnote 414: Mr. Payne understood Turkish.]

[Footnote 415: Copies now fetch from 30 to 40 each. The American reprint, of which we are told 1,000 copies were issued a few years ago, sells for about 20.]

[Footnote 416: He had intended to write two more volumes dealing with the later history of the weapon.]

[Footnote 417: It is dedicated to Burton.]

[Footnote 418: For outline of Mr. Kirby's career, see Appendix.]

[Footnote 419: Burton read German, but would never speak it. He said he hated the sound.]

[Footnote 420: We cannot say. Burton was a fair Persian scholar, but he could not have known much Russian.]

[Footnote 421: See Chapter ix.]

[Footnote 422: This essay will be found in the 10th volume of Burton's Arabian Nights, and in the eighth volume (p. 233) of the Library Edition.]