18. Attaf ou l'homme généreux.
(Gauttier, Histoire de l'habitant de Damas, vii. 234.)
19. Histoire du Prince Habib et de Dorrat Algoase.
20. Histoire du roi Sapor, souverain des îles Bellour; de Camar
Alzemann, fille du genie Alatrous, et Dorrat Algoase.
(Gauttier, vii. 64.)
21. Histoire de Naama et de Naam.
22. Histoire du d'Alaeddin.
23. Histoire du d'Abou Mohammed Alkeslan.
24. Histoire du d'Aly Mohammed le joaillier, ou du faux calife.
I need hardly offer any observations upon these tales, as they
have been discussed in the preceding pages.
By an error of the late M. Reinaud (for which see p. 39 His toire
d' 'Alâ al-Din by M. H. Zotenberg, Paris, Imprimerie Na tionale,
MDCCCLXXXVIII.) the MS. Supplément Arabe, No. I7I6, in the
writing of Dom Chavis has been confounded with No. 1723, which is
not written by the Syrian priest but which contains the originals
of the Cazotte Continuation as noted by M. C. de Perceval (Les
Mille et une Nuits, etc., vol. viii. Préf. p. I7, et seqq.) It is
labelled Histoires tirées la plupart des Mille et une Nuits |
Supplément Arabe | Volume de 742 pages. The thick quarto measures
centimètres 20 ½ long by I6 wide; the binding is apparently
Italian and the paper is European, but the filegrane or water-
mark, which is of three varieties, a coronet, a lozenge-shaped
bunch of circles and a nondescript, may be Venetian or French. It
contains 765 pages, paginated after European fashion, but the
last eleven leaves are left blank reducing the number written to
742; and the terminal note, containing the date, is on the last
leaf. Each page numbers IS lines and each leaf has its catchword
(mot de rappel). It is not ordered by "karrás" or quires; but is
written upon 48 sets of 4 double leaves. The text is in a fair
Syrian hand, but not so flowing as that of No. 1716, by Sháwísh
himself, which the well-known Arabist, Baron de Slane, described
as Bonne écriture orientale de la fin du XVIII Siècle. The
colophon conceals or omits the name of the scribe, but records
the dates of incept Kánún IId. (the Syrian winter month January)
A.D. 1772; and of conclusion Naysán (April) of the same year. It
has head-lines disposed recto and verve, e.g.,
Haykár -------------------- Al-Hakím,
and parentheses in the text after European fashion with an
imperfect list at the beginning. A complete index is furnished at
the end. The following are the order and pagination of the
fourteen stories:--
1. The King of Persia and his Ten Wazirs . . . . . .pp. 1 to 62
2. Say of the Sage Haykár. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .140
3. History of King Sabúr and the Three Wise Men. . . . . . .183
4. The Daughter of Kisrà the King (Al Bundukâni) . . . . . .217
5. The Caliph and the Three Kalandars. . . . . . . . . . . .266
6. Julnár the Sea born . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .396
7. The Duenna, the Linguist-dame and the King's Son. . . . .476
8. The Tale of the Warlock and the young Cook of Baghdad . .505
9. The Man in the Bímárístan or Madhouse . . . . . . . . . .538
10. The Tale of Attáf the Syrian. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .588
11. The History of Sultan Habíb and Durrat al-Ghawwás . . . .628
12. The Caliph and the Fisherman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .686
13. The Cock and the Fox. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .718
14. The Fowl-let and the Fowler . . . . . . . 725 to 739 (finis)
Upon these tales I would be permitted to offer a few
observetions. No. i. begins with a Christian formula:--"In the
name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost"
(Rúhu'l-Kudus); and it is not translated, because it is a mere
replica of the Ten Wazirs (Suppl. vol. i. 55-151). The second,
containing "The Sage Haykár," which is famous in folk-lore
throughout the East, begins with the orthodox Moslem "Bismillah,"
etc. "King Sapor" is prefaced by a Christian form which to the
Trinitarian formula adds, "Allah being One"; this, again, is not
translated, because it repeats the "Ebony Horse" (vol. v. 1). No
iv., which opens with the Bismillah, is found in the Sabbágh MS.
of The Nights (see Suppl. vol. iii.) as the Histoire de Haroun
al-Raschid et de la descendante de Chosroès. Albondoqani (Nights
lxx.-lxxvii.). No. v., which also has the Moslem invocation, is
followed by the "Caliph and the Three Kalandars," where, after
the fashion of this our MS., the episodes (vol. i., 104-130) are
taken bodily from "The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad"
(i. 82), and are converted into a separate History. No. vi. has
no title to be translated, being a replica of the long sea-tale
in vol. vii., 264. Nos. vii., viii., ix., x. and xi. lack
initiatory invocation betraying Christian or Moslem provenance.
No. viii. is the History of Sí Mustafá and of Shaykh Shaháb al-
Dín in the Turkish Tales: it also occurs in the Sabbágh MS.
(Nights ccclxxxvi.-cdviii.). The Bímáristán (No. ix.), alias Ali
Chalabi (Halechalbé), has already appeared in my Suppl. vol. iv.
35. No. xii., "The Caliph and the Fisherman," makes Harun
al-Rashid the hero of the tale in "The Fisherman and the Jinni"
(vol. i. 38); it calls the ensorcelled King of the Black Islands
Mahmúd, and his witch of a wife Sitt al-Mulúk, and it also
introduces into the Court of the Great Caliph Hasan Shumán and
Ahmad al-Danaf, the prominent personages in "The Rogueries of
Dalílah" (vol. vii. 144) and its sister tale (vii. 172). The two
last Histories, which are ingenious enough, also lack initial
formulæ.
Dr. Russell (the historian of Aleppo) brought back with him a
miscellaneous collection comprising--
Al-Bundukani, or the Robber Caliph;
The Power of Destiny (Attaf the Syrian);
Ali Chelebi, or the Bimaristan;
King Sankharib and the Sage Haykar;
Bohetzad (Azádbakht) and the Ten Wazirs; and, lastly,
Habib, or the Arabian Knight.
The Encyclopedia Britannica (ixth edit. of MDCCCLXXVI.), which
omits the name of Professor Galland, one of the marking
Orientalists in his own day, has not ignored Jacques Cazotte,
remarkable for chequered life and noble death. Born in 1720, at
Dijon, where his father was Chancellor for the Province of
Burgundy, he studied with the Jesuits at home; and, having passed
through the finishing process in Paris, he was introduced to
public life by the Administration de la Marine. He showed early
taste for poetry as well as prose, and composed songs, tales, and
an opera--"The Thousand and One Fopperies." His physique is
described as a tall figure, with regular features, expressive
blue eyes, and fine hair, which he wore long. At twenty seven he
became a commissary in the office and was presently sent as
Comptroller to the Windward Islands, including the French Colony
Martinique, which then as now was famous for successful woman-
kind. At these head-quarters he became intimate with Père
Lavalette, Superior of the S. J. Mission, and he passed some
years of a pleasant and not unintellectual career. Returning to
Paris on leave of absence he fell in with a country-woman and an
old family friend, Madame La Poissonnier, who had been appointed
head nurse to the Duke of Burgundy; and, as the child in her
charge required lulling to sleep, Cazotte composed the favourite
romances (ballads), Tout au beau milieu des Ardennes, and Commere
II faut chauffer le lit. These scherzi, however, brought him more
note than profit, and soon afterwards he returned to Martinique.
During his second term of service Cazotte wrote his heroic comic-
poem, the Roman d'Olivier, in twelve cantos, afterwards printed
in Paris (2 vols. 8vo, 1765); and it was held a novel and
singular composition. When the English first attacked (in 1759)
Saint Pierre of Martinique, afterwards captured by Rodney in
1762, the sprightly littérateur showed abundant courage and
conduct, but over-exertion injured his health, and he was again
driven from his post by sickness. He learned, on landing in
France, that his brother, whilome Vicar-General to M. de
Choiseul, Bishop of Châlons-sur-Marne, had died and left him a
fair estate, Pierry, near Epernay; he therefore resigned his
appointment and retired with the title "Commissary General to the
Marine." But presently he lost 50,000 écus--the whole fruit of
his economies--by the speculations of Père Lavalette, to whose
hands he had entrusted his estates, negroes, and effects at
Martinique. These had been sold and the cheques had been
forwarded to the owner: the S. J., however, refused to honour
them. Hence the scandal of a law-suit in which Cazotte showed
much delicacy and regard for the feelings of his former tutors.
Meanwhile Cazotte had married Elizabeth Roignon, daughter to the
Chief Justice of Martinique; he returned to the Parisian world
with some éclat and he became an universal favourite on account
of his happy wit and humour, his bonhomie, his perfect frankness,
and his hearty amiability. The vogue of "Olivier" induced him to
follow it up with Le Diable Amoureux, a continuation or rather
parody of Voltaire's Guerre civile de Genève: this work was so
skilfully carried out that it completely deceived the world; and
it was followed by sundry minor pieces which were greedily read.
Unlike the esprits forts of his age, he became after a gay youth-
tide an ardent Christian; he made the Gospel his rule of life;
and he sturdily defended his religious opinions; he had also the
moral courage to enter the lists with M. de Voltaire, then the
idol-in-chief of the classes and the masses.
In later life Cazotte met Dom Chavis, who was translating into a
curious jargon (Arabo-Franco-Italian) certain Oriental tales;
and, although he was nearing the Psalmist's age-term of man, he
agreed to "collaborate." The Frenchman used to take the pen at
midnight when returning from "social pleasures," and work till
4-5 a.m. As he had prodigious facility and spontaneity he
finished his part of the task in two winters. Some of the tales
in the suite, especially that of "Maugraby," are attributed
wholly to his invention; and, as a rule, his aim and object were
to diffuse his spiritual ideas and to write treatises on moral
perfection under the form of novelle.
Cazotte, after a well-spent and honourable life, had reason to
expect with calmness "the evening and ending of a fine day." But
this was not to be; the Great Revolution had burst like a
hurricane over the land, and he was doomed to die a hero's death.
His character was too candid, and his disposition too honest, for
times which suggested concealment. He had become one of the
Illuminati, and La Harpe ascribed to him the celebrated prophecy
which described the minutest events of the Great Revolution. A
Royalist pur sang, he freely expressed his sentiments to his old
friend Ponteau, then Secretary of the Civil List. His letters
came to light shortly after the terrible day, August IO, 1792: he
was summarily arrested at Pierry and brought to Paris, where he
was thrown into prison. On Sept. 3, when violence again waxed
rampant, he was attacked by the patriot-assassins, and was saved
only by the devotion of his daughter Elizabeth, who threw herself
upon the old man crying, "You shall not reach my father's heart
before piercing mine." The courage of the noble pair commanded
the admiration of the ruffians, and they were carried home in
triumph.
For a few weeks the family remained unmolested, but in those days
"Providence" slept and Fortune did not favour the brave. The
Municipality presently decreed a second arrest, and the venerable
littérateur, aged seventy two, was sent before the revolutionary
tribunal appointed to deal with the pretended offences of August
10. He was subjected to an interrogatory of thirty-six hours,
during which his serenity and presence of mind never abandoned
him and impressed even his accusers. But he was condemned to die
for the all-sufficient reason:--"It is not enough to be a good
son, a good husband, a good father, one must also prove oneself a
good citizen." He spent his last hours wit'. his confessor, wrote
to his wife and children, praying his family not to beweep him,
not to forget him, and never to offend against their God; and
this missive, with a lock of his hair for his beloved daughter,
he finally entrusted to the ghostly father. Upon the scaffold he
turned to the crowd and cried, "I die as I have lived, truthful
and faithful to my God and my King." His venerable head, crowned
with the white honours of age, fell on Sept. 25, 1792.
Cazotte printed many works, some of great length, as the uvres
Morales, which filled 7 vols. 8vo in the complete edition of
1817; and the biographers give a long list of publications,
besides those above-mentioned, romantic, ethical, and spiritual,
in verse and in prose. But he wrote mainly for his own pleasure,
he never sought fame, and consequently his reputation never
equalled his merit. His name, however, still smells sweet,
passing sweet, amid the corruption and the frantic fury of his
day, and the memory of the witty, genial, and virtuous
littérateur still blossoms in the dust.
During my visit to Paris in early 1887, M. Hermann Zotenberg was
kind enough to show me the MS., No. 1723, containing the original
tales of the "New Arabian Nights." As my health did not allow me
sufficient length of stay to complete my translation, Professor
Houdas kindly consented to copy the excerpts required, and to
explain the words and phrases which a deficiency of dictionaries
and vocabularies at an outlandish port-town rendered
unintelligible to me.
In translating a MS., which has never been collated or corrected
and which abounds in errors of omission and commission, I have
been guided by one consideration only, which is, that my first
and chiefest duty to the reader is to make my book readable at
the same time that it lays before him the whole matter which the
text offered or ought to have offered. Hence I have not hesitated
when necessary to change the order of the sentences, to delete
tautological words and phrases, to suppress descriptions which
are needlessly reiterated, and in places to supply the connecting
links without which the chain of narrative is weakened or broken.
These are liberties which must be allowed, unless the
translator's object be to produce a mutilated version of a
mutilation.
Here also I must express my cordial gratitude to Mr. Alexander J.
Cotheal, Consul-General for Nicaragua, in New York. This
distinguished Arabist not only sent to me across the seas his MS.
containing, inter alia, "The Tale of Attaf," he also under took
to translate it for my collection upon my distinct assurance that
its many novelties of treatment deserved an especial version. Mr.
W. F. Kirby has again conferred upon my readers an important
service by his storiological notes. Lastly, Dr. Steingass has
lent me, as before, his valuable aid in concluding as he did in
commencing this series, and on putting the colophon to