predecessors, contains a number of stories quite unknown to the general
reader. It concludes the history of Sindbad, giving a variant rendering,
from the Calcutta edition, of the seventh voyage, and contains a large
number of stories concerning the “Craft and Malice of Women,” which are
of the highest value as illustrations of social conditions, and it has
besides, many tales to which it would be a pleasure to allude
individually. * * * As a translation, it is unequalled in fidelity, and
Sir Richard Burton’s familiarity with Oriental scenes has enabled him to
preserve the greater part of the quaint flavour of the original.
LIVERPOOL MERCURY, _August 24th, 1887_.
We have already fully described this latest edition of the _Arabian
Nights_ and have spoken at large of its merits, both as a singularly
faithful translation and a finished work of high literary art. It is the
only rendering of _The Nights_ which has any pretentions to literalness
and completeness, and in this and all other respects is far away the
best edition extant.
ARMY AND NAVY GAZETTE, _August 27th, 1887_.
Bringing us up to the 944th night, this volume includes the curious tale
of the “Man of Upper Egypt and his Frankish Wife,” and others omitted by
Lane. One of the most characteristic of these is that of “King Jali’ad
of Hind and his Wazir Shimas,” which belongs to the oldest series in
_The Nights_ and has attached to it a number of animal and other fables,
all very remarkable. Lane found the story “puerile,” and it is very true
that from many points of view, it is so; but as an illustration of the
ways of Arabian society and an example of a class of stories largely
circulated amongst the Oriental peoples of that date, it cannot be
overlooked, and if read in the proper appreciative spirit, it is by no
means devoid of amusement. The style of the translation, as we have
previously remarked, has a strange archaic charm, and the unusual
locutions of which Sir Richard Burton is master, harmonize admirably
with his subject, while the rhythmic portions, which he has reproduced
with so much skill and diversify, render still more picturesque the
whole.
MORNING ADVERTISER, _October 12th, 1887_.
Several of the stories comprised in this latter group are familiar under
other forms in most parts of Europe, and there are few of them which do
not embody the practical wisdom and the sound and generous moral
precepts which are, as a rule, characteristic of the _Arabian Nights_.
Taken in conjunction with the numerous and excellent notes which the
translator has supplied, this version as we have before had occasion to
observe, presents the exact sense of the original Arabic text, which the
fanciful phraseology in which the narratives are expressed largely
assists in realising, while lending an additional charm to the tales
themselves. * * * In this volume are contained, among others, the
stories of Hasan of Bassorah, of Khalifah the Fisherman of Baghdad, of
Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle Girl, of the Man of Upper Egypt and
his Frankish Wife, of the Ruined Man of Baghdad and his Slave-Girl, and
the long series of tales, fables and allegories, in which the
astrologers and other wise men variously interpret a dream which had
disturbed the great King Jali’ad of Hind, and on which he had consulted
them. Several of the stories comprised in this latter group are familiar
under other forms in most parts of Europe, and there are few of them
which do not embody the practical wisdom and the sound and generous
moral precepts which are, as a rule, characteristic of the _Arabian
Nights_. The volume contains also the interesting history of King Wird
Khan, with his women and Wazirs. This monarch was weak and uxorious, and
disregarding the sage counsels of Shimas, the chief of his Wazirs,
pursued a profligate and effeminate career, as the result of which great
troubles arose in his realm, and an extensive conspiracy was formed to
get rid of him. Acting on the suggestion of his favourite wife, he
caused his Wazirs, grandees, and notables to be put to death after the
fashion of Eastern despots. The weakness to which his kingdom was thus
reduced tempted aggression by a neighbouring king, and it was threatened
with immediate invasion, rapine, and slaughter. From this strait he was
delivered by the sagacity of a boy whom he had accidentally fallen in
with in the course of a stroll he made _incog._ one evening through his
capital whilst pondering over his desperate position. The stories
introduced in the course of the history contain the counsel offered him
in the successive stages of his difficulty, through which he is at
length conducted in safety and then returns to a more rational course of
life. Lane omits this story as being exceedingly puerile. That judgment
will hardly be supported by the reader when he now reads it. It is one
of the two oldest tales in the whole series of the _Arabian Nights_ as
is here pointed out, and at the same time very characteristic. Taken in
conjunction with the numerous and excellent notes here supplied, this
version, as we have before had occasion to observe, presents the exact
sense of the original Arabic text, which the fanciful phraseology in
which the narrative are expressed largely assists in realising, while
lending an additional charm to the tales themselves.
GLASGOW EVENING TIMES, _December 3, 1887_.
The third of the five Supplemental volumes of Sir Richard Burton’s
translation of _The Thousand Nights and a Night_ is in the hands of the
subscribers this week. It is one of the most interesting, and (we have
Sir Richard’s word for it) the most innocent of the series. It contains
some of the best known of the Eastern tales, including “Aladdin” and
“Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves,” which did not find a place either in
Sir Richard Burton’s translation of the _Nights_ or in that of Mr. John
Payne for the Villon Society, for the very good reason that they were
then unknown except through the French translation of Galland, and were
under suspicion of not being of Eastern origin at all. The doubts about
Galland’s translations have, however, now been removed, for all his
tales have been discovered in Hindustani, and some of them in Arabic
under circumstances which preclude these versions from having been
translated from that of the French writer. In his preface Sir Richard
Burton tells the story in detail, but we need not follow him there. He
has now had these old favourites translated afresh, and they form a
fitting pendant to his work. He courts comparison of his translation
with the long popular version of Galland by printing the English
translation of the latter’s Aladdin along with his own. Sir Richard’s
notes are, it may be expected, full of curious information.
ACADEMY, _December 10, 1887_.
_THE KAMA SHASTRA SOCIETY._
Sir Richard F. Burton has just issued to his subscribers the third
volume of his _Supplemental Nights_, the printing of which was delayed
through his illness during the early part of the year. Sir Richard
intends to pass the winter at Fiume, where the climate is less trying
than at Trieste. He hopes to come to England in May, bringing with him
the MS. of the fifth and last volume of the _Supplemental Nights_. The
fourth volume is already in the hands of the printers to the Kama
Shastra Society.
The third volume of the _Supplemental Nights_ was originally intended to
be the fourth; but the order has been altered on account of the
difficulties which Sir Richard experienced in transcribing the
Wortley-Montague MS. in the Bodleian, as narrated by himself in the
_Academy_ of November 13, 1886. Students, however, will not regret the
change, in consideration of their delight at here finding for the first
time the true Oriental version of “Aladdin,” which has hitherto only
been known through Galland’s French. As Sir Richard announced in the
_Academy_ of January 22, 1887, an Arabic original of “Aladdin” and some
other tales was quite recently purchased for the Bibliothèque Nationale
by M. Hermann Zotenberg, who will shortly publish a full bibliographical
description of his discovery. Meanwhile he has placed a copy of the MS.
at Sir Richard’s disposal; and from this the translation of “Aladdin,”
or rather, “Allaeddin,” has been made. “Ali Baba” is another of the most
familiar of the _Arabian Nights_ stories for which no Arabic original
has yet been found. In order to produce a genuine Orientalised version
of this, Sir Richard has had recourse to the following device. After
much searching in vain among Persian and Turkish MSS., he at last found
a Hindustani version containing the missing tales, which Mr. J. F.
Blumhardt, of Cambridge, helped to English. He was thus enabled to
escape from the plan he had originally contemplated—of turning Galland’s
French into Arabic, and then translating that.
In addition to these welcome novelties, the volume is noticeable for its
bulk, for Sir Richard generally gives his subscribers more than he
promised. We have here the popular English form of Galland’s “Aladdin,”
to compare with the version now first made from the original Arabic; and
also an appendix of about 100 pages, contributed by Mr. W. A. Clouston,
which describes in detail the variants and analogues of all the tales in
the volume.
In the meantime, the Kama Shastra Society has begun a fresh
undertaking—the production of a literal and unexpurgated translation of
three famous Persian works:—(1) The _Gulistân_, or “Rose Garden,” of
Sa’dí (A.D. 1258), which may be called not unfamiliar in incomplete
versions; (2) the _Nigaristân_, or “Picture Gallery,” of Mu’in-uddín
Jawini (A.D. 1334), which has never been translated into any Western
language; and (3) the _Behâristân_, or “Abode of Spring,” of Jâmi (A.D.
1487), of which one chapter or “garden” was translated a few years ago
by Mr. C. E. Wilson, under the title of _Persian Wit and Humour_ (Chatto
and Windus, 1883). For a popular account of these authors and their rank
in Persian literature, we may refer our readers to a little volume
published by Mr. Bernard Quaritch in the early part of the present year
called _Persian Portraits_. Of the three translations which the Kama
Shastra Society propose to issue to a very limited number of
subscribers, the _Behâristân_ of Jâmi—the latest in date but the
greatest in reputation—is now ready. It forms a volume of less than 200
pages with a few notes.
MORNING POST, _March 19, 1888_.
As is well shown in this volume, there is as much in the manner of these
tales as in the matter of them. If Oriental fiction delights our fancy
by transferring us from the common places of our workaday life to realms
and to communities fairer than any of which we have daily experience
here, any aids from language by which the dominance of fascination may
be maintained are clearly legitimate and useful. That the subject is
worthy of a warm and ornate rendering such as has been bestowed upon it
in these delightful volumes is made abundantly evident from a glance at
the splendour of the Arabian Empire during the period covered by _The
Nights_ but particularly in the earlier portion of it.
ATHENÆUM, _May 12, 1888_.
Sir Richard Burton’s complete translation of the _Arabian Nights_ may be
considered the _magnum opus_ of one who had already added much to his
country’s literature by the record of his own personal travel and
adventure. To render the original text of such a work as _The Arabian
Nights_ into a European language so as to make the reader apprehend the
style and spirit of the Arabic is necessarily a task demanding
exceptional qualifications; and success in so bold an attempt, were it
but partial, would imply the exercise of more than Oriental scholarship.
It could only be achieved by one who understood, in all shades and
phases, the genius and imaginary, the ways and habits, the tastes and
prejudices, the pathos and humour of both Western and Eastern peoples.
Probably there is no Englishman living who could have ventured on the
undertaking with better chances of success than Sir R. Burton.
LIVERPOOL DAILY POST, _May 3, 1888_.
The sale of Sir Richard Burton’s uncompromising translation of the
_Thousand and One Nights_ was so great that Sir Richard has undertaken
to supply five supplementary volumes. The “copy” has just reached the
publishers from Trieste, and the volumes will be disposed of on the same
terms as the early ones—that is to say, by subscription. The price fixed
is pretty high, but so overmastering is the purely literary curiosity in
the matter that not only was the original edition sold to the last copy,
but the book is now at a very considerable premium in the market. Sir
Richard Burton proposes to himself to take a little rest, after which he
will commence a work that cannot fail to equal in interest even the
_Arabian Nights_, and will be much better adapted for appearance on the
drawing-room table. Sir Richard is going to write his autobiography—a
work that will cover one of the most remarkable careers of modern times.
The efforts made in influential quarters to secure an adequate retiring
pension for this gallant explorer and man of letters still prove
unavailing, and he goes on with his dull, uncongenial work as Consul at
Trieste—a place in which he has never enjoyed really good health.
THE COUNTY GENTLEMAN, _October 17th, 1885_.
How fearfully cold it is, to be sure! My overcoat is neither lined with
rabbit skin nor tipped with astrachan, and I feel the bitter breeze. A
friend of mine, who has subscribed to Captain Burton, tells me that if I
carried a copy of the first volume of the new translation of the
_Arabian Nights_ in my breast-pocket I would find it very warm. I
daresay he is right, but the copies published a month ago at a guinea
have gone up in value to ten. I suppose the reports of a severe winter
have sent the work to a premium. Or, may be, Mr. Stead’s review gives it
enhanced value.
* * * * *
Burton’s new _Arabian Nights_ is the book of the season. But, strange to
say, it is not to be had at Mudie’s or at Smith’s. Only a thousand
copies were issued, and these went to subscribers. And the owners of a
copy of the first volume are already personages of importance.
School-girls cry for the book, and the Social Purity people borrow it
when they can. Inquisitive folk ask everybody if they have seen it, and
wonder why there should be so much fuss made about it. Wags look knowing
and give evasive answers, but the man who tells the truth sayeth in
reply, “because it is the highest book ever printed in English.” The
captain is not the only writer that has gone to the _Thousand and One
Nights_.
* * * * *
Burton’s book makes one feel sorry for Rabelais and Stead. Indeed,
Rabelais borrowed from the original, and Burton of immortal Melancholy,
like his namesake the peripatetic captain, knew something of it. The new
edition will be prized by a few students, perhaps, but its chief value
in the eyes of many that hold copies of it will be its high qualities. A
few of the volumes were to be had in Holywell-street, but these have all
been bought up at big prices.
“_Jehu Junior_,” VANITY FAIR, _October 24th, 1885_.
As a bold, astute traveller, courting danger, despising hardship, and
compelling fortune, Captain Burton has few equals; as a master of
Oriental languages, manners and customs he has none. He is still very
young, very vigorous, very full of anecdote and playful humour, and,
what is remarkable in a linguist, he has not disdained even his own
mother tongue, which he handles with a precision and a power that few
can approach. He has recently crowned his literary labours by the most
complete, laborious, uncompromising, and perfect translation of that
collection of stories known to us as _The Arabian Nights_, but more
correctly called _A Thousand Nights and a Night_. He is a wonderful man.
WHITEHALL REVIEW, _October 29th, 1885_.
The second volume of Captain Burton’s translation of the _Arabian
Nights_ has just been issued to the subscribers, who had already become
impatient for a second instalment of this great and fascinating
contribution to literature. The new volume is, if possible, of even
greater interest than the first. It contains the whole of the fantastic
semi-chivalrous story of King Omar Bin al-Nu’-uman and his sons Sharrkan
and Zau al-Makan, a knowledge of which has hitherto been confined
chiefly to Oriental scholars, as Lane only admitted an episode from it
into his version of _Alif Laïla_. Some of Sharrkan’s adventures will
remind students of other Eastern stories of some of the adventures
recorded of the hero of Persian romance, Hatim Taï. As usual, Captain
Burton’s notes are rich, varied, and copious, of the greatest service to
all serious students of Arabic manners and customs, and of Oriental life
in general. * * *
_Apropos_ of Captain Burton’s _Arabian Nights_, a silly story is going
the round of some of the newspapers to the effect that some idiot, or
company of idiots, intend to address a solemn appeal to Captain Burton
to cease the publication of his work. A virtuous journal like the _Pall
Mall Gazette_ has been shocked by its Oriental freedom of speech, and it
and its readers are prepared to denounce Captain Burton up hill and down
dale for the crime of translating into accurate English a great Arabic
masterpiece. How silly, how vulgar, how uneducated such a cry is must be
obvious to any one who has made any study, no matter how limited, of any
of the great literatures of the world compared to Rabelais, compared to
Boccaccio, compared to La Fontaine, the _Arabian Nights_ of Captain
Burton might almost be recommended as a study for a Sunday-school. We
have chosen for our examples authors all of whose works are familiarly
studied and easily obtainable. It would be childish to compare Captain
Burton’s _Arabian Nights_ with other works which we could mention, which
are, luckily, less generally known and also, luckily, less generally
obtainable; while to compare the morality of these new _Arabian Nights_
with the _Pall Mall Gazette_ itself would be comparing the waters of the
Mediterranean with ditchwater.
SOUTH EASTERN HERALD, _October 31st, 1885_.
At Mr. Quaritch’s trade sale the other day, Captain Burton made an
interesting speech regarding _The Thousand and One Nights_, of which the
gist was to show that his translation performs a double office. It is
not only a faithful and racy version of the true original, but it also
represents a better text than any which has been hitherto accessible in
print or manuscript. He, in fact, produced for his own use, and by
collation of the existing materials, a careful, critical recension of
the original; and his rendering may, therefore, claim to stand towards
the _Alf Laïlah_ in the same manner as the Latin version of Plato, by
Marsilius Ficinus, towards the Greek text.
ANGLER’S JOURNAL, _November 21st, 1885_.
To such of my brother anglers as consider something warm a necessity
when pursuing their sport during the winter months, I confidently
recommend the latest edition of the _Thousand and One Nights_, done into
English by Captain Burton. There is no pandering to pretended prudery in
this work, which is the only translation extant calculated to give one a
true idea of the many subtle and hitherto unexpressed beauties of the
original. This book is the more welcome from the fact of our having been
lately flooded with abridged and castrated editions of the English and
other classics; for, as a matter of fact, the excised portions are the
only parts of such books that the British public cares to read. But what
has all this to do with fishing? I fancy I hear some of my readers
indulging in expletives, and language which is best expressed by the
natural divisions of these paragraphs.
MORNING POST, _January 19th, 1886_.
Everything comes to him who waits—even the long-promised, eagerly
expected “Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights,” by
Richard F. Burton. It is a whole quarter of a century since this
translation of one of the most famous books of the world was
contemplated, and we are told it is the natural outcome of the
well-known pilgrimage to Medinah and Mecca. Of Captain Burton’s fitness
for the task who can doubt? It was during that celebrated journey to the
Tomb of the Prophet that he proved himself to be an Arab—indeed, he
says, in a previous state of existence he was a Bedouin. Did he not for
months at a stretch lead the life of a Son of the Faithful, eat, drink,
sleep, dress, speak, pray, like his brother devotees, the sharpest eyes
failing to pierce his disguise? He knows the ways of Eastern men—and
women—as he does the society of London or Trieste. How completely at
home he is with his adopted brethren he showed at Cairo, when, to the
amazement of some English friends who were looking on at the noisy
devotions of some “howling” Dervishes, he suddenly joined the shouting,
gesticulating circle, and behaved as if to the manner born. He has
qualified as a “howler,” he holds a diploma as a master Dervish, and he
can initiate disciples. Clearly, to use a phrase of Arabian story, it
was decreed by Allah from the beginning—and fate and fortune have
arranged—that Captain Burton should be the one of all others to confer
upon his countrymen the boon of the genuine unsophisticated _Thousand
Nights and a Night_. In the whole of our literature no book is more
widely known. It is spread broadcast like the Bible, Bunyan, and
Shakespeare: yet although it is in every house, and every soul in the
kingdom knows something about it, yet nobody knows it as it really
exists. We have only had what translators have chosen to give—selected,
diluted, and abridged transcripts. And of late some so-called “original”
books have been published, containing minor tales purloined bodily from
the _Nights_.
BAT, _February 8th, 1886_.
Indeed of those who know the _Arabian Nights_ as they really are, there
are three classes and only three. First, there are those who have read
the translation by Mr. John Payne, a book with many faults, but which
has the merit of being the first complete translation in any language.
Secondly, those who know the Alif Laila in its original text; whether
that text be Macnaughten’s, Habicht’s, or the Boulak version. Thirdly,
and best of all, those who know the translation by Sir Richard Burton,
an immortal addition to English literature, and the most priceless
contribution to Oriental knowledge that has been made for a century. To
the serious student of the East and of all things Eastern, Sir Richard
Burton’s translation is in itself a very Alexandrian library of rare,
curious, unparalleled knowledge, the Knowledge, that can only be
obtained and given again by a man of letters, who is also in the widest
sense a man of the world. But Sir Richard Burton’s translation of the
_Arabian Nights_ is a book for men and not for all men. It is the
text-book and the treasure-house of scholars; but it is not for
every-day readers; and above all things, and inevitably, it is not for
woman-kind. No woman could read, was ever meant to read Sir Richard
Burton’s _Arabian Nights_.
COURT SOCIETY, _March 4th, 1886_.
Not a little disgust has been excited by the vulgar sneer which a
morning paper has indulged in at the expense of Sir Richard Burton. Long
neglected by successive Governments, Captain Burton received, after 44
years, a tardy recognition of his services. Straightway, it was
suggested that he is made a knight because he translated the _Arabian
Nights_. It need scarcely be said that his translation has nothing to do
with the distinction conferred upon him, but as it is the habit in a
certain quarter to denounce the literal translation of the _Nights_, it
cannot be too distinctly understood that Captain Burton never meant his
work to fall into any hands save those of a thousand students.
SPORTING LIFE, _April 12th, 1886_.