The reader will not understand this allusion (Foreword, p. ix.)
without some connaissance de cause. I would apologise for
deforming the beautiful serenity and restfulness of The Nights by
personal matter of a tone so jarring and so discordant a sound,
the chatter and squabble of European correspondence and
contention; but the only course assigned to me perforce is that
of perfect publicity. The first part of the following papers
appeared by the editor's kindness in "The Academy" of November
13, 1886. How strange the contrast of "doings" with "sayings," if
we compare the speech reported to have been delivered by Mr.
Librarian Nicholson at the opening of the Birmingham Free Public
Central Lending and Reference Libraries, on June 1, 1882:?
"As for the Bodleian, I claim your sympathies, not merely because
we are trying to do as much for our readers as you are for yours,
but because, if the building which you have opened to-day is the
newest free public library in the world, the building which I
left earlier in the morning is the oldest free public library in
the world. (No!) I call it a free public library because any
Birmingham artizan who came to us with a trustworthy
recommendation might ask to have the rarest gem in our collection
placed before him, and need have no fear of asking in vain; and
because, if a trusty Birmingham worker wanted the loan of a MS.
for three months, it would be lent to the Central Free Library
for his use." See Twentieth and Twenty-first Annual Reports of
the Free Libraries Committee (Borough of Birmingham), 1883.
And now to my story. The play opens with the following letter:?
No. I.
23, DORSET STREET, PORTMAN SQUARE,
Sept. 13, 1886.
"Sir,
"I have the honour to solicit your assistance in the following
matter:?
"Our friend Dr. Steingass has kindly consented to collaborate
with me in re-translating from the Wortley Montague MS. of the
Bodleian Library, Oxford, the tales originally translated in vol.
vi. of Dr. Jonathan Scott's 'Arabian Nights.' Dr. Steingass
cannot leave town, and I should find it very inconvenient to live
at Oxford during the work, both of us having engagements in
London. It would be a boon to us if the Curators of the Bodleian
would allow the MS. to be transferred, volume by volume, to the
India Office, and remain under the custody of the Chief
Librarian?yourself. The whole consists of seven volumes, and we
would begin with vols. iii. and iv. I may note that the
translated tales (as may be seen by Scott's version) contain
nothing indelicate or immoral; in fact the whole MS. is
exceptionally pure. Moreover, the MS., as far as I can learn, is
never used at Oxford. I am the more anxious about this matter as
the November fogs will presently drive me from England, and I
want to end the extracts ere winter sets in, which can be done
only by the co-operation of Dr. Steingass.