The Life of Sir Richard Burton Part 55

[Footnote 423: Mr. Payne's account of the destruction of the Barmecides is one of the finest of his prose pa.s.sages. Burton pays several tributes to it.

See Payne's Arabian Nights, vol. ix.]

[Footnote 424: Tracks of a Rolling Stone, by Hon. Henry J. c.o.ke, 1905.]

[Footnote 425: Lady Burton's edition, issued in 1888, was a failure. For the Library Edition, issued in 1894, by H. S. Nichols, Lady Burton received, we understand, 3,000.]

[Footnote 426: Duvat inkstand, dulat fortune. See The Beharistan, Seventh Garden.]

[Footnote 427: Mr. Arbuthnot was the only man whom Burton addressed by a nickname.]

[Footnote 428: Headings of Jami's chapters.]

[Footnote 429: It appeared in 1887.]

[Footnote 430: Abu Mohammed al Kasim ibn Ali, surnamed Al-Hariri (the silk merchant), 1054 A. D. to 1121 A. D. The Makamat, a collection of witty rhymed tales, is one of the most popular works in the East. The interest cl.u.s.ters round the personality of a clever wag and rogue named Abu Seid.]

[Footnote 431: The first twenty-four Makamats of Abu Mohammed al Kasim al Hariri, were done by Chenery in 1867. Dr. Steinga.s.s did the last 24, and thus completed the work. Al Hariri is several times quoted in the Arabian Nights. Lib. Ed. iv., p. 166; viii., p. 42.]

[Footnote 432: Times, 13th January 1903.]

[Footnote 433: Lib. Ed. vol. 8, pp. 202-228.]

[Footnote 434: See Notes to Judar and his Brethren. Burton's A. N., vi., 255; Lib. Ed., v., 161.]

[Footnote 435: Burton's A. N. Suppl., vi., 454; Lib. Ed., xii., 278. Others who a.s.sisted Burton were Rev. George Percy Badger, who died February 1888, Mr. W. F. Kirby, Professor James F. Blumhardt, Mr. A. G. Ellis, and Dr. Reinhold Rost.]

[Footnote 436: See Chapter x.x.x.]

[Footnote 437: This work consists of fifty folk tales written in the Neapolitan dialect. They are supposed to be told by ten old women for the entertainment of a Moorish slave who had usurped the place of the rightful Princess. Thirty-one of the stories were translated by John E.

Taylor in 1848. There is a reference to it in Burton's Arabian Nights, Lib. Ed., ix., 280.]

[Footnote 438: Meaning, of course, Lord Houghton's money.]

[Footnote 439: Cf. Esther, vi., 8 and 11.]

[Footnote 440: Ought there not to be notices prohibiting this habit in our public reference libraries? How many beautiful books have been spoilt by it!

[Footnote 441: The joys of Travel are also hymned in the Tale of Ala-al-Din.

Lib. Ed., iii., 167.]

[Footnote 442: Cf. Seneca on Anger, Ch. xi. "Such a man," we cry, "has done me a shrewd turn, and I never did him any hurt! Well, but it may be I have mischieved other people."

[Footnote 443: Payne's Version. See Burton's Footnote, and Payne vol. i., p.

93.]

[Footnote 444: Burton's A. N. i., 237; Lib. Ed., i., 218. Payne translates it:

If thou demand fair play of Fate, therein thou dost it wrong; and blame it not, for 'twas not made, indeed, for equity.

Take what lies ready to thy hand and lay concern aside, for troubled days and days of peace in life must surely be.]

[Footnote 445: Burton's A. N., ii., 1; Lib. Ed., i., 329; Payne's A. N., i., 319.]

[Footnote 446: Payne has--"Where are not the old Chosroes, tyrants of a bygone day? Wealth they gathered, but their treasures and themselves have pa.s.sed away." Vol. i., p. 359.]

[Footnote 447: To distinguish it from date honey--the drippings from ripe dates.]

[Footnote 448: Ja'afar the Barmecide and the Beanseller.]

[Footnote 449: Burton's A. N., v., 189; Lib. Ed., iv., 144; Payne's A. N., iv., 324.]

[Footnote 450: Burton's A. N., vi., 213; Lib. Ed., v., 121; Payne's A. N., vi., 1.]

[Footnote 451: Burton's A. N., ix., 304; Lib. Ed., vii., 364; Payne's A. N., ix., 145.]

[Footnote 452: Burton's A. N., ix., 134; Lib. Ed., viii., 208; Payne's A. N., viii., 297.]

[Footnote 453: Burton's A. N., ix., 165; Lib. Ed., vii., 237; Payne's A. N., viii., 330.]

[Footnote 454: Burton's A. N., viii., 264 to 349; ix., 1 to 18; Lib. Ed., vii., 1 to 99; Payne's A. N., viii., 63 to 169.]

[Footnote 455: Burton's A. N., vol. x., p. 1; Lib. Ed., vol. viii., p. 1; Payne's A. N., vol. ix., p. 180.]

[Footnote 456: Satan--See Story of Ibrahim of Mosul. Burton's A. N., vii., 113; Lib. Ed., v., 311; Payne's A. N., vi., 215.]

[Footnote 457: Payne.]

[Footnote 458: "Queen of the Serpents," Burton's A. N., v., 298; Lib. Ed., iv., 245; Payne's A. N., v., 52.]

[Footnote 459: Burton's A. N., vi., 160; Lib. Ed., v., 72; Payne's A. N., v., 293.]

[Footnote 460: See Arabian Nights. Story of Aziz and Azizeh. Payne's Translation; also New Poems by John Payne, p. 98.]

[Footnote 461: Here occurs the break of "Night 472."

[Footnote 462: Burton's A. N., ii., p. 324-5; Lib. Ed., ii., p, 217; Payne, ii., p. 247.]

[Footnote 463: The reader may like to compare some other pa.s.sages. Thus the lines "Visit thy lover," etc. in Night 22, occur also in Night 312.

In the first instance Burton gives his own rendering, in the second Payne's. See also Burton's A. N., viii., 262 (Lib. Ed., vi., 407); viii., 282 (Lib. Ed., vii., 18); viii., 314 (Lib. Ed., vii., 47); viii., 326 (Lib. Ed., vii., 59); and many other places.]

[Footnote 464: Thus in the story of Ibrahim and Jamilah [Night 958:, Burton takes 400 words--that is nearly a page--verbatim, and without any acknowledgement. It is the same, or thereabouts, every page you turn to.]

[Footnote 465: Of course, the coincidences could not possibly have been accidental, for both translators were supposed to take from the four printed Arabic editions. We shall presently give a pa.s.sage by Burton before Payne translated it, and it will there be seen that the phraseology of the one translator bears no resemblance whatever to that of the other. And yet, in this latter instance, each translator took from the same original instead of from four originals. See Chapter xxiii.]

[Footnote 466: At the same time the Edinburgh Review (July 1886) goes too far. It puts its finger on Burton's blemishes, but will not allow his translation a single merit. It says, "Mr. Payne is possessed of a singularly robust and masculine prose style... Captain Burton's English is an unreadable compound of archaeology and slang, abounding in Americanisms, and full of an affected reaching after obsolete or foreign words and phrases."

[Footnote 467: "She drew her cilice over his raw and bleeding skin." [Payne has "hair shirt."]--"Tale of the Ensorcelled Prince." Lib. Ed., i., 72.]

[Footnote 468: "Nor will the egromancy be dispelled till he fall from his horse." [Payne has "charm be broken."]--"Third Kalendar's Tale." Lib.

Ed., i., 130. "By virtue of my egromancy become thou half stone and half man." [Payne has "my enchantments."]--"Tale of the Ensorcelled Prince."