The Life of Sir Richard Burton
by
Thomas Wright
Part 9 out of 9
[FN#196] Told me by the Rev. Henry Roe.
[FN#197] Life, and various other works.
[FN#198] See Abeokuta and the Cameroons, 2 vols., 1863.
[FN#199] Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo,
2 vols., 1876.
[FN#200] "Who first bewitched our eyes with Guinea gold." Dryden,
Annus Mirabilis, 67.
[FN#201] Incorporated subsequently with a Quarterly Journal,
The Anthropological Review.
[FN#202] See Chapter xxix., 140.
[FN#203] Foreword to The Arabian Nights, vol. 1. The Arabian
Nights, of course, was made to answer the purpose of this organ.
[FN#204] See Wanderings in West Africa, vol. 2, p. 91. footnote.
[FN#205] Burton.
[FN#206] Afa is the messenger of fetishes and of deceased friends.
Thus by the Afa diviner people communicate with the dead.
[FN#207] This was Dr. Lancaster's computation.
[FN#208] Communicated to me by Mr. W. H. George, son of
Staff-Commander C. George, Royal Navy.
[FN#209] Rev. Edward Burton, Burton's grandfather, was Rector
of Tuam. Bishop Burton, of Killala, was the Rev. Edward Burton's
brother.
[FN#210] The copy is in the Public Library, High Street, Kensington,
where most of Burton's books are preserved.
[FN#211] Spanish for "little one."
[FN#212] The Lusiads, 2 vols., 1878. Says Aubertin, "In this city
(Sao Paulo) and in the same room in which I began to read
The Lusiads in 1860, the last stanza of the last canto was finished
on the night of 24th February 1877."
[FN#213] Burton dedicated the 1st vol. of his Arabian Nights
to Steinhauser.
[FN#214] Dom Pedro, deposed 15th November 1889.
[FN#215] This anecdote differs considerably from Mrs. Burton's
version, Life, i., 438. I give it, however, as told by Burton
to his friends.
[FN#216] Lusiads, canto 6, stanza 95. Burton subsequently altered
and spoilt it. The stanza as given will be found on the opening
page of the Brazil book.
[FN#217] He describes his experiences in his work The Battlefields
of Paraguay.
[FN#218] Unpublished. Told me by Mrs. E. J. Burton. Manning was
made a cardinal in 1875.
[FN#219] Mr. John Payne, however, proves to us that the old Rashi'd,
though a lover of the arts, was also a sensual and bloodthirsty
tyrant. See Terminal Essay to his Arabian Nights, vol. ix.
[FN#220] She thus signed herself after her very last marriage.
[FN#221] Mrs. Burton's words.
[FN#222] Life i., p. 486.
[FN#223] Arabian Nights. Lib. Ed, i., 215.
[FN#224] Burton generally writes Bedawi and Bedawin.
Bedawin (Bedouin) is the plural form of Bedawi. Pilgrimage to
Meccah, vol. ii., p. 80.
[FN#225] 1870. Three months after Mrs. Burton's arrival.
[FN#226] It contained, among other treasures, a Greek manuscript of
the Bible with the Epistle of Barnabas and a portion of the Shepherd
of Hermas.
[FN#227] 1 Kings, xix., 15; 2 Kings, viii., 15.
[FN#228] The Romance of Isabel Lady Burton, ii., 386.
[FN#229] 11th July 1870.
[FN#230] E. H. Palmer (1840-1882). In 1871 he was appointed Lord
Almoner's Professor of Arabic at Cambridge. He was murdered at Wady
Sudr, 11th August 1882. See Chapter xxiii.
[FN#231] Renan. See, too, Paradise Lost, Bk. 1. Isaiah (xvii., 10)
alludes to the portable "Adonis Gardens" which the women used to
carry to the bier of the god.
[FN#232] The Hamath of Scripture. 2. Sam., viii., 9; Amos, vi., 2.
[FN#233] See illustrations in Unexplored Syria, by Burton and Drake.
[FN#234] The Land of Midian Revisited, ii., 73.
[FN#235] Life of Edward H. Palmer, p. 109.
[FN#236] Chica is the feminine of Chico (Spanish).
[FN#237] Mrs. Burton's expression.
[FN#238] District east of the Sea of Galilee.
[FN#239] Job, chapter xxx. "But now they that are younger than I
have me in derision ... who cut up mallows by the bushes and juniper
roots for their meat."
[FN#240] Greek Geographer. 250 B.C.
[FN#241] Burton's words.
[FN#242] Published in 1898.
[FN#243] Life, i., 572.
[FN#244] The Romance of Isabel Lady Burton, ii., 504.
[FN#245] The Romance of Isabel Lady Burton, ii., 505.
[FN#246] Temple Bar, vol. xcii., p. 339.
[FN#247] Near St. Helens, Lancs.
[FN#248] Life of Sir Richard Burton, by Lady Burton, i., 591.
[FN#249] 2nd November 1871.
[FN#250] The fountain was sculptured by Miss Hosmer.
[FN#251] 27th February 1871. Celebration of the Prince of Wales's
recovery from a six weeks' attack of typhoid fever.
[FN#252] Her husband's case.
[FN#253] Of course, this was an unnecessary question, for there was
no mistaking the great scar on Burton's cheek; and Burton's name was
a household word.
[FN#254] February 1854. Sir Roger had sailed from Valparaiso to Rio
Janeiro. He left Rio in the "Bella," which was lost at sea.
[FN#255] Undated.
[FN#256] Knowsley is close to Garswood, Lord Gerard's seat.
[FN#257] Letter, 4th January 1872.
[FN#258] Garswood, Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire.
[FN#259] Unpublished letter.
[FN#260] The True Life, p. 336.
[FN#261] It had just been vacated by the death of Charles Lever,
the novelist. Lever had been Consul at Trieste from 1867 to 1872.
He died at Trieste, 1st June 1872.
[FN#262] Near Salisbury.
[FN#263] Burton's A.N. iv. Lib. Ed., iii., 282. Payne's A.N. iii.,
10.
[FN#264] Told me by Mr. Henry Richard Tedder, librarian at the
Athenaeum from 1874.
[FN#265] Burton, who was himself always having disputes with
cab-drivers and everybody else, probably sympathised with
Mrs. Prodgers' crusade.
[FN#266] Of 2nd November 1891.
[FN#267] Lake Regions of Equatorial Africa (2 vols. 1860). Vol. 33
of the Royal Geographical Society, 1860, and The Nile Basin, 1864.
[FN#268] A portion was written by Mrs. Burton.
[FN#269] These are words used by children. Unexplored Syria, i.,
288. Nah really means sweetstuff.
[FN#270] Afterwards Major-General. He died in April 1887.
See Chapter ix., 38.
[FN#271] Mrs. Burton and Khamoor followed on Nov. 18th.
[FN#272] Burton's works contain many citations from Ovid.
Thus there are two in Etruscan Bologna, pp. 55 and 69, one being
from the Ars Amandi and the other from The Fasti.
[FN#273] Stendhal, born 1783. Consul at Trieste and Civita Vecchia
from 1830 to 1839. Died in Paris, 23rd March 1842. Burton refers
to him in a footnote to his Terminal Essay in the Nights on
"Al Islam."
[FN#274] These are all preserved now at the Central Library,
Camberwell.
[FN#275] Now in the possession of Mrs. St. George Burton.
[FN#276] In later times Dr. Baker never saw more than three tables.
[FN#277] Mrs. Burton, was, of course, no worse than many other
society women of her day. Her books bristle with slang.
[FN#278] It is now in the possession of Mrs. E. J. Burton, 31,
Whilbury Road, Brighton.
[FN#279] Later Burton was himself a sad sinner in this respect.
His studies made him forget his meals.
[FN#280] His usual pronunciation of the word.
[FN#281] 12th August 1874.
[FN#282] Letter to Lord Houghton.
[FN#283] Dr. Grenfell Baker, afterwards Burton's medical attendant.
[FN#284] Hell.
[FN#285] A.E.I. (Arabia, Egypt, Indian).
[FN#286] Burton's A. N., v., 304. Lib. Ed., vol. 4., p. 251.
[FN#287] About driving four horses.
[FN#288] I do not know to what this alludes.
[FN#289] See Chapter i.
[FN#290] Its population is now 80,000.
[FN#291] Sind Revisited, i., 82.
[FN#292] See Sind Revisited, vol. ii., pp. 109 to 149.
[FN#293] Where Napier with 2,800 men defeated 22,000.
[FN#294] Romance of Isabel Lady Burton, ii., 584.
[FN#295] Dr. Da Cunha, who was educated at Panjim, spent several
years in England, and qualified at the Colleges of Physicians and
Surgeons. He built up a large practice in Goa.
[FN#296] There are many English translations, from Harrington's,
1607, to Hoole's, 1783, and Rose's, 1823. The last is the best.
[FN#297] Sir Henry Stisted died of consumption in 1876.
[FN#298] Robert Bagshaw, he married Burton's aunt, Georgiana Baker.
[FN#299] His cousin Sarah, who married Col. T. Pryce Harrison.
See Chapter iv. and Chapter xix.
[FN#300] Burton's brother.
[FN#301] Romance of Isabel Lady Burton, ii., 656.
[FN#302] Romance of Isabel Lady Burton.
[FN#303] Burton's A.N., Suppl., ii., 61. Lib. Ed. ix.,
p. 286, note.
[FN#304] Thus, Balzac, tried to discover perpetual motion,
proposed to grow pineapples which were to yield enormous profits,
and to make opium the staple of Corsica, and he studied mathematical
calculations in order to break the banks at Baden-Baden.
[FN#305] We are telling the tale much as Mrs. Burton told it, but we
warn the reader that it was one of Mrs. Burton's characteristics
to be particularly hard on her own sex and also that she was given
to embroidering.
[FN#306] Preface to Midian Revisited, xxxiv.
[FN#307] Ex Ponto III., i., 19.
[FN#308] The Gold Mines of Midian and the Ruined Midianite Cities
(C. Kegan Paul and Co.) It appeared in 1878.
[FN#309] The Land of Midian Revisited, ii., 254.
[FN#310] Kindly copied for me by Miss Gordon, his daughter.
[FN#311] They left on July 6th (1878) and touched at Venice,
Brindisi, Palermo and Gibraltar.
[FN#312] November 1876.
[FN#313] From the then unpublished Kasidah.
[FN#314] The famous Yogis. Their blood is dried up by the scorching
sun of India, they pass their time in mediation, prayer and
religious abstinence, until their body is wasted, and they fancy
themselves favoured with divine revelations.
[FN#315] The Spiritualist. 13th December 1878.
[FN#316] In short, she had considerable natural gifts, which were
never properly cultivated.
[FN#317] See Chapter xxxviii.
[FN#318] Arabia, Egypt, India.
[FN#319] Letter to Miss Stisted.
[FN#320] She says, I left my Indian Christmas Book with Mr. Bogue on
7th July 1882, and never saw it after.
[FN#321] Burton dedicated to Yacoub Pasha Vol. x. of his Arabian
Nights. They had then been friends for 12 years.
[FN#322] Inferno, xix.
[FN#323] Canto x., stanza 153.
[FN#324] Canto x., stanzas 108-118.
[FN#325] Between the Indus and the Ganges.
[FN#326] A Glance at the Passion Play, 1881.
[FN#327] The Passion Play at Ober Ammergau, 1900.
[FN#328] A Fireside King, 3 vol., Tinsley 1880. Brit. Mus. 12640
i. 7.
[FN#329] See Chapter xx., 96. Maria Stisted died 12th November
1878.
[FN#330] See Chapter xli.
[FN#331] Only an admirer of Omar Khayyam could have written
The Kasidah, observes Mr. Justin McCarthy, junior; but the only
Omar Khayyam that Burton knew previous to 1859, was Edward
FitzGerald. I am positive that Burton never read Omar Khayyam
before 1859, and I doubt whether he ever read the original at all.
[FN#332] For example:--
"That eve so gay, so bright, so glad, this morn so dim and sad
and grey;
Strange that life's Register should write this day a day, that
day a day."
Amusingly enough, he himself quotes this as from Hafiz in a letter
to Sir Walter Besant. See Literary Remains of Tyrwhitt Drake,
p. 16. See also Chapter ix.
[FN#333] We use the word by courtesy.
[FN#334] See Life, ii., 467, and end of 1st volume of Supplemental
Nights. Burton makes no secret of this. There is no suggestion
that they are founded upon the original of Omar Khayyam. Indeed,
it is probable that Burton had never, before the publication of
The Kasidah, even heard of the original, for he imagined like
J. A. Symonds and others, that FitzGerald's version was a fairly
literal translation. When, therefore, he speaks of Omar Khayyam he
means Edward FitzGerald. I have dealt with this subject
exhaustively in my Life of Edward FitzGerald.
[FN#335] Couplet 186.
[FN#336] Preserved in the Museum at Camberwell. It is inserted in a
copy of Camoens.
[FN#337] Italy having sided with Prussia in the war of 1866 received
as her reward the long coveted territory of Venice.
[FN#338] Born 1844. Appointed to the command of an East Coast
expedition to relieve Livingstone, 1872. Crossed Africa 1875.
[FN#339] "Burton as I knew him," by V. L. Cameron.
[FN#340] Nearly all his friends noticed this feature in his
character and have remarked it to me.
[FN#341] The number is dated 5th November 1881. Mr. Payne had
published specimens of his proposed Translation, anonymously, in the
New Quarterly Review for January and April, 1879.
[FN#342] This was a mistake. Burton thought he had texts of the
whole, but, as we shall presently show, there were several texts
which up to this time he had not seen. His attention, as his
letters indicate, was first drawn to them by Mr. Payne.
[FN#343] In the light of what follows, this remark is amusing.
[FN#344] See Chapter xxiii, 107.
[FN#345] In the Masque of Shadows.
[FN#346] New Poems, p. 19.
[FN#347] The Masque of Shadows, p. 59.
[FN#348] Published 1878.
[FN#349] New Poems, p. 179.
[FN#350] Published 1871.
[FN#351] Mr. Watts-Dunton, the Earl of Crewe, and Dr. Richard
Garnett have also written enthusiastically of Mr. Payne's poetry.
[FN#352] Of "The John Payne Society" (founded in 1905) and its
publications particulars can be obtained from The Secretary,
Cowper School, Olney. It has no connection with the "Villon
Society," which publishes Mr. Payne's works.
[FN#353] See Chapter xi., 43.
[FN#354] Dr. Badger died 19th February, 1888, aged 73.
[FN#355] To Payne. 20th August 1883.
[FN#356] No doubt the "two or three pages" which he showed to
Mr. Watts-Dunton.
[FN#357] This is a very important fact. It is almost incredible,
and yet it is certainly true.
[FN#358] Prospectuses.
[FN#359] Its baths were good for gout and rheumatism. Mrs. Burton
returned to Trieste on September 11th.
[FN#360] This is, of course, a jest. He repeats the jest,
with variation, in subsequent letters.
[FN#361] The author wishes to say that the names of several persons
are hidden by the dashes in these chapters, and he has taken every
care to render it impossible for the public to know who in any
particular instance is intended.
[FN#362] Of course, in his heart, Burton respected Lane as a
scholar.
[FN#363] Apparently Galland's.
[FN#364] Mr. Payne's system is fully explained in the Introductory
Note to Vol. i. and is consistently followed through the 13 volumes
(Arabian Nights, 9 vols.; Tales from the Arabic, 3 vols.;
Alaeddin and Zein-ul-Asnam, i vol.).
[FN#365] One of the poets of The Arabian Nights.
[FN#366] See Chapter iii. 11.
[FN#367] He published some of this information in his Terminal
Essay.
[FN#368] Perhaps we ought again to state most emphatically that
Burton's outlook was strictly that of the student. He was angry
because he had, as he believed, certain great truths to tell
concerning the geographical limits of certain vices, and an
endeavour was being made to prevent him from publishing them.
[FN#369] Burton's A. N. vi., 180; Lib. Ed. v., 91, The Three Wishes,
or the Man who longed to see the Night of Power.
[FN#370] The Lady and her Five Suitors, Burton's A. N., vi., 172;
Lib. Ed., v., 83; Payne's A. N., v., 306. Of course Mr. Payne
declined to do this.
[FN#371] Possibly this was merely pantomime. Besant, in his Life of
Palmer, p. 322, assumes that Matr Nassar, or Meter, as he calls him,
was a traitor.
[FN#372] Cloak.
[FN#373] Cursing is with Orientals a powerful weapon of defence.
Palmer was driven to it as his last resource. If he could not deter
his enemies in this way he could do no more.
[FN#374] Burton's Report and Besant's Life of Palmer, p. 328.
[FN#375] See Chapter vi., 22.
[FN#376] Palmer translated only a few songs in Hafiz. Two will be
found in that well-known Bibelot, Persian Love Songs.
[FN#377] There were two editions of Mr. Payne's Villon. Burton is
referring to the first.
[FN#378] Augmentative of palazzo, a gentleman's house.
[FN#379] We have altered this anecdote a little so as to prevent the
possibility of the blanks being filled up.
[FN#380] That which is knowable.
[FN#381] Let it be remembered that the edition was (to quote the
title-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.
[FN#382] This was a favourite saying of Burton's. We shall run
against it elsewhere. See Chapter xxxiv., 159. Curiously enough,
there is a similar remark in Mr. Payne's Study of Rabelais written
eighteen years previous, and still unpublished.
[FN#383] Practically there was only the wearisome, garbled,
incomplete and incorrect translation by Dr. Weil.
[FN#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.
[FN#385] Three vols., 1884.
[FN#386] The public were to some extent justified in their attitude.
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.
[FN#387] He married in 1879, Ellinor, widow of James Alexander
Guthrie, Esp., of Craigie, Forfarshire, and daughter of Admiral
Sir James Stirling.
[FN#388] Early Ideas by an Aryan, 1881. Alluded to by Burton in
A. N., Lib. Ed., ix., 209, note.
[FN#389] Persian Portraits, 1887. "My friend Arbuthnot's pleasant
booklet, Persian Portraits," A. N. Lib. Ed. x., 190.
[FN#390] Arabic Authors, 1890.
[FN#391] In Kalidasa's Megha Duta he is referred to as riding on a
peacock.
[FN#392] Sir William Jones. The Gopia correspond with the Roman
Muses.
[FN#393] The reader will recall Mr. Andrew Lang's witty remark in
the preface to his edition of the Arabian Nights.
[FN#394] Kalyana Mull.
[FN#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.
[FN#396] This goddess 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).
[FN#397] "Pleasant as nail wounds"--The Megha Duta, by Kalidasa.
[FN#398] A girl married in her infancy.
[FN#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.
[FN#400] Guy de Maupasant, by Leo Tolstoy.
[FN#401] The Kama Sutra.
[FN#402] Richard Monckton Milnes, born 1809, created a peer 1863,
died 1885. His life by T. Wemyss Reid appeared in 1891.
[FN#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 illustrations."
Burton's A. N., x., 202; Lib. Ed., viii., 183.
[FN#404] Kullianmull.
[FN#405] Memorial Edition, p. 96.
[FN#406] The book has several times been reprinted. All copies,
however, I believe, bear the date 1886. Some bear the imprint
"Cosmopoli 1886."
[FN#407] See Chapter xxxii. It may be remembered also that Burton
as good as denied that he translated The Priapeia.
[FN#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.
[FN#409] Byron calls Sadi the Persian Catullus, Hafiz the Persian
Anacreon, Ferdousi the Persian Homer.
[FN#410] Eastwick, p. 13.
[FN#411] Tales from the Arabic.
[FN#412] That is in following the Arabic jingles. Payne's
translation is in reality as true to the text as Burton's.
[FN#413] By W. A. Clouston, 8vo., Glasgow, 1884. Only 300
copies printed.
[FN#414] Mr. Payne understood Turkish.
[FN#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.
[FN#416] He had intended to write two more volumes dealing with the
later history of the weapon.
[FN#417] It is dedicated to Burton.
[FN#418] For outline of Mr. Kirby's career, see Appendix.
[FN#419] Burton read German, but would never speak it. He said he
hated the sound.
[FN#420] We cannot say. Burton was a fair Persian scholar, but he
could not have known much Russian.
[FN#421] See Chapter ix.
[FN#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.
[FN#423] Mr. Payne's account of the destruction of the Barmecides is
one of the finest of his prose passages. Burton pays several
tributes to it. See Payne's Arabian Nights, vol. ix.
[FN#424] Tracks of a Rolling Stone, by Hon. Henry J. Coke, 1905.
[FN#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.
[FN#426] Duvat inkstand, dulat fortune. See The Beharistan,
Seventh Garden.
[FN#427] Mr. Arbuthnot was the only man whom Burton addressed by
a nickname.
[FN#428] Headings of Jami's chapters.
[FN#429] It appeared in 1887.
[FN#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 clusters round the personality of a clever wag and
rogue named Abu Seid.
[FN#431] The first twenty-four Makamats of Abu Mohammed al Kasim al
Hariri, were done by Chenery in 1867. Dr. Steingass 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.
[FN#432] Times, 13th January 1903.
[FN#433] Lib. Ed. vol. 8, pp. 202-228.
[FN#434] See Notes to Judar and his Brethren. Burton's A. N., vi.,
255; Lib. Ed., v., 161.
[FN#435] Burton's A. N. Suppl., vi., 454; Lib. Ed., xii., 278.
Others who assisted 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.
[FN#436] See Chapter xxx.
[FN#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.
[FN#438] Meaning, of course, Lord Houghton's money.
[FN#439] Cf. Esther, vi., 8 and 11.
[FN#440] Ought there not to be notices prohibiting this habit in
our public reference libraries? How many beautiful books have been
spoilt by it!
[FN#441] The joys of Travel are also hymned in the Tale of
Ala-al-Din. Lib. Ed., iii., 167.
[FN#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."
[FN#443] Payne's Version. See Burton's Footnote, and Payne vol. i.,
p. 93.
[FN#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.
[FN#445] Burton's A. N., ii., 1; Lib. Ed., i., 329; Payne's A. N.,
i., 319.
[FN#446] Payne has--
"Where are not the old Chosroes, tyrants of a bygone day?
Wealth they gathered, but their treasures and themselves have
passed away." Vol. i., p. 359.
[FN#447] To distinguish it from date honey--the drippings from ripe
dates.
[FN#448] Ja'afar the Barmecide and the Beanseller.
[FN#449] Burton's A. N., v., 189; Lib. Ed., iv., 144; Payne's A. N.,
iv., 324.
[FN#450] Burton's A. N., vi., 213; Lib. Ed., v., 121; Payne's A. N.,
vi., 1.
[FN#451] Burton's A. N., ix., 304; Lib. Ed., vii., 364; Payne's
A. N., ix., 145.
[FN#452] Burton's A. N., ix., 134; Lib. Ed., viii., 208; Payne's
A. N., viii., 297.
[FN#453] Burton's A. N., ix., 165; Lib. Ed., vii., 237; Payne's
A. N., viii., 330.
[FN#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.
[FN#455] Burton's A. N., vol. x., p. 1; Lib. Ed., vol. viii., p. 1;
Payne's A. N., vol. ix., p. 180.
[FN#456] Satan--See Story of Ibrahim of Mosul. Burton's A. N.,
vii., 113; Lib. Ed., v., 311; Payne's A. N., vi., 215.
[FN#457] Payne.
[FN#458] "Queen of the Serpents," Burton's A. N., v., 298; Lib. Ed.,
iv., 245; Payne's A. N., v., 52.
[FN#459] Burton's A. N., vi., 160; Lib. Ed., v., 72; Payne's A. N.,
v., 293.
[FN#460] See Arabian Nights. Story of Aziz and Azizeh. Payne's
Translation; also New Poems by John Payne, p. 98.
[FN#461] Here occurs the break of "Night 472."
[FN#462] Burton's A. N., ii., p. 324-5; Lib. Ed., ii., p, 217;
Payne, ii., p. 247.
[FN#463] The reader may like to compare some other passages.
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.
[FN#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.
[FN#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 passage 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.
[FN#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."
[FN#467] "She drew her cilice over his raw and bleeding skin."
[Payne has "hair shirt."]--"Tale of the Ensorcelled Prince."
Lib. Ed., i., 72.
[FN#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." Lib. Ed., i., 71.
[FN#469] "The water prisoned in its verdurous walls."--"Tale of the
Jewish Doctor."
[FN#470] "Like unto a vergier full of peaches." [Note.--O.E.
"hortiyard" Mr. Payne's word is much better.]--"Man of Al Zaman
and his Six Slave Girls."
[FN#471] "The rondure of the moon."--"Hassan of Bassorah."
[Shakespeare uses this word, Sonnet 21, for the sake of rhythm.
Caliban, however, speaks of the "round of the moon."]
[FN#472] "That place was purfled with all manner of flowers."
[Purfled means bordered, fringed, so it is here used wrongly.]
Payne has "embroidered," which is the correct word.--"Tale of King
Omar," Lib. Ed., i., 406.
[FN#473] Burton says that he found this word in some English writer
of the 17th century, and, according to Murray, "Egremauncy occurs
about 1649 in Grebory's Chron. Camd. Soc. 1876, 183." Mr. Payne,
however, in a letter to me, observes that the word is merely an
ignorant corruption of "negromancy," itself a corruption of a
corruption it is "not fit for decent (etymological) society."
[FN#474] A well-known alchemical term, meaning a retort, usually of
glass, and completely inapt to express a common brass pot, such as
that mentioned in the text. Yellow copper is brass; red copper is
ordinary copper.
[FN#475] Fr. ensorceler--to bewitch. Barbey d'Aurevilly's fine
novel L'Ensorcelee, will be recalled. Torrens uses this word,
and so does Payne, vol. v., 36. "Hath evil eye ensorcelled thee?"
[FN#476] Lib. Ed., ii., 360.
[FN#477] Swevens--dreams.
[FN#478] Burton, indeed, while habitually paraphrasing Payne,
no less habitually resorts, by way of covering his "conveyances,"
to the clumsy expedient of loading the test with tasteless and
grotesque additions and variations (e.g., "with gladness and goodly
gree," "suffering from black leprosy," "grief and grame,"
"Hades-tombed," "a garth right sheen," "e'en tombed in their tombs,"
&c., &c.), which are not only meaningless, but often in complete
opposition to the spirit and even the letter of the original, and,
in any case, exasperating in the highest degree to any reader with
a sense of style.
[FN#479] Burton's A. N., v., 135; Lib. Ed., iv., 95.
Payne Burton
Vol. V. p. 25 Vol. V. p. 271
(Lib. Ed., vol. iv., p. 220)
THE BLACKSMITH WHO THE BLACKSMITH WHO
COULD HANDLE FIRE COULD HANDLE FIRE
WITHOUT HURT WITHOUT HURT
A certain pious man It reached the ears of
once heard that there a certain pious man that
abode in such a town a there abode in such a town
blacksmith who could a blacksmith who could
put his hand into the fire put his hand into the fire
and pull out the red-hot and pull out the iron red-
iron, without its doing hot, without the flames
him any hurt. So he set doing him aught of hurt.
out for the town in ques- So he set out for the town in
tion and enquiring for the question and asked for
blacksmith, watched him the blacksmith; and when
at work and saw him do the man was shown to
as had been reported to him; he watched him at
him. He waited till he work and saw him do as
had made an end of his had been reported to him.
day's work, then going He waited till he had made
up to him, saluted him an end of his day's work;
and said to him, "I then, going up to him,
would fain be thy guest saluted him with the salam
this night." "With all and said, "I would be thy
my heart," replied the guest this night." Replied
smith, and carried him to the smith, "With gladness
his house, where they and goodly gree!" and
supped together and lay carried him to his place,
down to sleep. The guest where they supped together
watched his host, but and lay down to sleep.
found no sign of [special] The guest watched but saw
devoutness in him and no sign in his host of pray-
said to himself. "Belike ing through the night or
he concealeth himself from of special devoutness, and
me." So he lodged with said in his mind, "Haply
him a second and a third he hideth himself from
night, but found that he me." So he lodged with
[FN#480] Or Karim-al-Din. Burton's A. N., v., 299; Lib. Ed., iv.,
246; Payne's A. N., v. 52.
[FN#481] Le Fanu had carefully studied the effects of green tea
and of hallucinations in general. I have a portion of the
correspondence between him and Charles Dickens on this subject.
[FN#482] Burton's A. N., Suppl. ii., 90-93; Lib. Ed., ix., 307, 308.
[FN#483] Lib. Ed., iv., 147.
[FN#484] "The Story of Janshah." Burton's A. N., v., 346; Lib. Ed.,
iv., 291.
[FN#485] One recalls "Edith of the Swan Neck," love of King Harold,
and "Judith of the Swan Neck," Pope's "Erinna," Cowper's Aunt.
[FN#486] Burton's A. N., x., 6; Lib. Ed., viii., 6.
[FN#487] Burton's A. N., viii., 275; Lib. Ed., vii., 12.
[FN#488] Burton's A. N., vii., 96; Lib. Ed., v., 294.
[FN#489] Burton's A. N., Suppl. Nights, vi., 438; Lib. Ed.,
xii., 258.
[FN#490] Burton's A. N., x., 199; Lib. Ed., viii., 174; Payne's
A. N., ix., 370.
[FN#491] The writer of the article in the Edinburgh Review
(no friend of Mr. Payne), July 1886 (No. 335, p. 180.), says Burton
is "much less accurate" than Payne.
[FN#492] New York Tribune, 2nd November 1891.
[FN#493] See Chapter xxxiii.
[FN#494] Still, as everyone must admit, Burton could have said all
he wanted to say in chaster language.
[FN#495] Arbuthnot's comment was: "Lane's version is incomplete, but
good for children, Payne's is suitable for cultured men and women,
Burton's for students."
[FN#496] See Chapter xii., 46.
[FN#497] Burton's A. N., x., 180, 181; Lib. Ed., viii., 163.
[FN#498] Burton's A. N., x., 203; Lib. Ed., viii., 184.
[FN#499] Of course, all these narratives are now regarded by most
Christians in quite a different light from that in which they were
at the time Burton was writing. We are all of us getting to
understand the Bible better.
[FN#500] Lady Burton gives the extension in full. Life, vol. ii,
p. 295.
[FN#501] The Decameron of Boccaccio. 3 vols., 1886.
[FN#502] Any praise bestowed upon the translation (apart from the
annotations) was of course misplaced--that praise being due to
Mr. Payne.
[FN#503] Lady Burton's surprise was, of course, only affected.
She had for long been manoeuvering to bring this about, and very
creditably to her.
[FN#504] Life, ii., 311.
[FN#505] Dr. Baker, Burton's medical attendant.
[FN#506] Burton's Camoens, i., p. 28.
[FN#507] Life, vol. i., p. 396.
[FN#508] Note to "Khalifah," Arabian Nights, Night 832.
[FN#509] Childe Harold, iv., 31, referring, of course, to Petrarch.
[FN#510] Terminal Essay, Arabian Nights.
[FN#511] It reminded him of his old enemy, Ra'shid Pasha.
See Chap. xiv.
[FN#512] Pilgrimage to Meccah, ii., 77.
[FN#513] Mission to Gelele, ii., 126.
[FN#514] Task, Book i.
[FN#515] By A. W. Kinglake.
[FN#516] See Lib. Ed. Nights, Sup., vol. xi., p. 365.
[FN#517] Chambers's Journal, August 1904.
[FN#518] Chambers's Journal.
[FN#519] Ex Ponto, iv., 9.
[FN#520] Or words to that effect.
[FN#521] This was no solitary occasion. Burton was constantly
chaffing her about her slip-shod English, and she always had some
piquant reply to give him.
[FN#522] See Chapter xxxv., 166.
[FN#523] Now Queen Alexandra.
[FN#524] Life, ii., 342.
[FN#525] This remark occurs in three of his books, including
The Arabian Nights.
[FN#526] Stories of Janshah and Hasan of Bassorah.
[FN#527] One arch now remains. There is in the British Museum
a quarto volume of about 200 pages (Cott. MSS., Vesp., E 26)
containing fragments of a 13th Century Chronicle of Dale. On Whit
Monday 1901, Mass was celebrated within the ruins of Dale Abbey for
the first time since the Reformation.
[FN#528] The Church, however, was at that time, and is now, always
spoken of as the "Shrine of Our Lady of Dale, Virgin Mother of
Pity." The Very Rev. P. J. Canon McCarthy, of Ilkeston, writes to
me, "The shrine was an altar to our Lady of Sorrows or Pieta,
which was temporarily erected in the Church by the permission of the
Bishop of Nottingham (The Right Rev. E. S. Bagshawe), till such time
as its own chapel or church could be properly provided. The shrine
was afterwards honoured and recognised by the Holy See."
See Chapter xxxix.
[FN#529] Letter to me, 18th June 1905. But see Chapter xxxv.
[FN#530] Murphy's Edition of Johnson's Works, vol, xii., p. 412.
[FN#531] Preface to The City of the Saints. See also Wanderings in
West Africa, i., p. 21, where he adds, "Thus were written such books
as Eothen and Rambles beyond Railways; thus were not written Lane's
Egyptians or Davis's Chinese."
[FN#532] The general reader will prefer Mrs. Hamilton Gray's Tour to
the Sepulchres of Etruria, 1839; and may like to refer to the review
of it in The Gentleman's Magazine for April, 1841.
[FN#533] Phrynichus.
[FN#534] Supplemental Nights, Lib. Ed., x., 302, Note.
[FN#535] The recent speeches (July 1905) of the Bishop of Ripon and
the letters of the Rev. Dr. Barry on this danger to the State will
be in the minds of many.
[FN#536] Burton means what is now called the Neo-Malthusian system,
which at the time was undergoing much discussion, owing to the
appearance, at the price of sixpence, of Dr. H. Allbutt's well-known
work The Wife's Handbook. Malthus's idea was to limit families by
late marriages; the Neo-Malthusians, who take into consideration the
physiological evils arising from celibacy, hold that it is better
for people to marry young, and limit their family by lawful means.
[FN#537] This is Lady Burton's version. According to another
version it was not this change in government that stood in Sir
Richard's way.
[FN#538] Vide the Preface to Burton's Catullus.
[FN#539] We are not so prudish as to wish to see any classical work,
intended for the bona fide student, expurgated. We welcome
knowledge, too, of every kind; but we cannot shut our eyes to the
fact that in much of Sir Richard's later work we are not presented
with new information. The truth is, after the essays and notes in
The Arabian Nights, there was nothing more to say. Almost all the
notes in the Priapeia, for example, can be found in some form or
other in Sir Richard's previous works.
[FN#540] Decimus Magnus Ausonius (A.D. 309 to A.D. 372) born at
Burdegala (Bordeaux). Wrote epigrams, Ordo Nobilium Urbium, short
poems on famous cities, Idyllia, Epistolae and the autobiographical
Gratiarum Actio.
[FN#541] Among the English translations of Catullus may be mentioned
those by the Hon. George Lamb, 1821, and Walter K. Kelly, 1854
(these are given in Bohn's edition), Sir Theodore Martin, 1861,
James Cranstoun, 1867, Robinson Ellis, 1867 and 1871, Sir Richard
Burton, 1894, Francis Warre Cornish, 1904. All are in verse except
Kelly's and Cornish's. See also Chapter xxxv. of this work.
[FN#542] Mr. Kirby was on the Continent.
[FN#543] Presentation copy of the Nights.
[FN#544] See Mr. Kirby's Notes in Burton's Arabian Nights.
[FN#545] See Chapter xxix.
[FN#546] Now Professor of Sanskrit at Cambridge.
[FN#547] Chapter xxxi.
[FN#548] Burton's book, Etruscan Bologna, has a chapter on the
contadinesca favella Bolognese, pp. 242-262.
[FN#549] 20th September 1887, from Adeslberg, Styria.
[FN#550] Writer's cramp of the right hand, brought on by hard work.
[FN#551] Of the Translation of The Novels of Matteo Bandello,
6 vols. Published in 1890.
[FN#552] Mr. Payne had not told Burton the name of the work, as he
did not wish the news to get abroad prematurely.
[FN#553] She very frequently committed indiscretions of this kind,
all of them very creditable to her heart, but not to her head.
[FN#554] Folkestone, where Lady Stisted was staying.
[FN#555] Lady Stisted and her daughter Georgiana.
[FN#556] Verses on the Death of Richard Burton.--New Review. Feb.
1891.
[FN#557] With The Jew and El Islam.
[FN#558] Mr. Watts-Dunton, need we say? is a great authority on the
Gypsies. His novel Aylwin and his articles on Borrow will be called
to mind.
[FN#559] My hair is straight as the falling rain
And fine as the morning mist.
--Indian Love, Lawrence Hope.
[FN#560] The Jew, The Gypsy, and El Islam, p. 275.
[FN#561] It is dedicated to Burton.
[FN#562] Burton's A. N., Suppl. i., 312; Lib. Ed., ix., 209.
See also many other of Burton's Notes.
[FN#563] Lib. Ed., vol. x.
[FN#564] Lib. Ed., x., p. 342. xi., p. 1.
[FN#565] Lib. Ed., xii.
[FN#566] Burton differed from Mr. Payne on this point. He thought
highly of these tales. See Chapter xxxv, 167.
[FN#567] This paragraph does not appear in the original. It was
made up by Burton.
[FN#568] One friend of Burton's to whom I mentioned this matter said
to me, "I was always under the impression that Burton had studied
literary Arabic, but that he had forgotten it."
[FN#569] Life, ii., 410. See also Romance, ii., 723.
[FN#570] As most of its towns are white, Tunis is called The Burnous
of the Prophet, in allusion to the fact that Mohammed always wore a
spotlessly white burnous.
[FN#571] As suggested by M. Hartwig Derenbourg, Membre de
l'Institut.
[FN#572] The nominal author of the collection of Old English Tales
of the same name.
[FN#573] Ridiculous as this medical learning reads to-day, it is not
more ridiculous than that of the English physicians two centuries
later.
[FN#574] Juvenal, Satire xi.
[FN#575] Religio Medici, part ii., section 9.
[FN#576] We should word it "Pauline Christianity."
[FN#577] Arabian Nights, Lib. Ed., vii., 161.
[FN#578] See the example we give in 160 about Moseilema and the bald
head.
[FN#579] Also called The Torch of Pebble Strown River Beds, a title
explained by the fact that in order to traverse with safety the
dried Tunisian river beds, which abound in sharp stones, it is
advisable, in the evening time, to carry a torch.
[FN#580] Mohammed, of course.
[FN#581] It contained 283 pages of text, 15 pages d'avis au lecteur,
2 portraits, 13 hors testes on blue paper, 43 erotic illustrations
in the text, and at the end of the book about ten pages of errata
with an index and a few blank leaves.
[FN#582] He also refers to it in his Arabian Nights, Lib. Ed., vol.
viii., p. 121, footnote.
[FN#583] See Chapter xxvi.
[FN#584] But, of course, the book was not intended for the average
Englishman, and every precaution was taken, and is still taken,
to prevent him from getting it.
[FN#585] Court fool of Haroun al Rashid. Several anecdotes of
Bahloul are to be found in Jami's Beharistan.
[FN#586] A tale that has points in common with the lynching stories
from the United States. In the Kama Shastra edition the negro is
called "Dorerame."
[FN#587] Chapter ii. Irving spells the name Moseilma.
[FN#588] Chapter ii. Sleath's Edition, vol. vi., 348.
[FN#589] It must be remembered that the story of Moseilema and
Sedjah has been handed down to us by Moseilema's enemies.
[FN#590] The struggle between his followers and those of Mohammed
was a fight to the death. Mecca and Yamama were the Rome and
Carthage of the day--the mastery of the religious as well as of the
political world being the prize.
[FN#591] As spelt in the Kama Shastra version.
[FN#592] Burton's spelling. We have kept to it throughout this
book. The word is generally spelt Nuwas.
[FN#593] The 1886 edition, p. 2.
[FN#594] Vol. i., p. 117.
[FN#595] Cf. Song of Solomon, iv., 4. "Thy neck is like the Tower
of David."
[FN#596] See Burton's remarks on the negro women as quoted in
Chapter ix., 38.
[FN#597] Women blacken the inside of the eyelids with it to make the
eyes look larger and more brilliant.
[FN#598] So we are told in the Introduction to the Kama Shastra
edition of Chapters i. to xx. Chapter xxi. has not yet been
translated into any European language. Probably Burton never
saw it. Certainly he did not translate it.
[FN#599] From the Paris version of 1904. See Chapter xxxviii.
of this book, where the Kama Shastra version is given.
[FN#600] Life, by Lady Burton, ii., 441.
[FN#601] The pen name of Carl Ulrichs.
[FN#602] Life, by Lady Burton, ii., 444.
[FN#603] There is an article on Clerical Humorists in The
Gentleman's Magazine for Feb. 1845.
[FN#604] Mr. Bendall.
[FN#605] On the Continent it was called "The Prince of Wales shake."
[FN#606] It is now in the Public Library, Camberwell.
[FN#607] John Elliotson (1791-1868). Physician and mesmerist.
One always connects his name with Thackeray's Pendennis.
[FN#608] A reference to a passage in Dr. Tuckey's book.
[FN#609] James Braid (1795-1850) noted for his researches in Animal
Magnetism.
[FN#610] See Chapter xxiv, 112.
[FN#611] The famous Finnish epic given to the world in 1835 by
Dr. Lonnrot.
[FN#612] Letter to Mr. Payne, 28th January 1890.
[FN#613] As ingrained clingers to red tape and immobility.
[FN#614] I give the anecdote as told to me by Dr. Baker.
[FN#615] Letter of Mr. T. D. Murray to me 24th September 1904.
But see Chapter xxxi. This paper must have been signed within three
months of Sir Richard's death.
[FN#616] On 28th June 1905, I saw it in the priest's house at
Mortlake. There is an inscription at the back.
[FN#617] Alaeddin was prefaced by a poetical dedication to Payne's
Alaeddin, "Twelve years this day,--a day of winter dreary," etc.
[FN#618] See Chapter xxxiii., 156. Payne had declared that
Cazotte's tales "are for the most part rubbish."
[FN#619] Mr. Payne's translation of The Novels of Matteo Bandello,
six vols. Published in 1890.
[FN#620] Now Professor of Sanskrit at Cambridge.
[FN#621] 6th November 1889.
[FN#622] Lib. Ed., vol. xii., p. 226.
[FN#623] See Introduction by Mr. Smithers.
[FN#624] 11th July 1905.
[FN#625] We quote Lady Burton. Mr. Smithers, however, seems to have
doubted whether Burton really did write this sentence. See his
Preface to the Catullus.
[FN#626] A Translation by Francis D. Bryne appeared in 1905.
[FN#627] I am indebted to M. Carrington for these notes.
[FN#628] Unpublished.
[FN#629] Dr. Schliemann died 27th December, 1890.
[FN#630] Not the last page of the Scented Garden, as she supposed
(see Life, vol. ii., p. 410), for she tells us in the Life
(vol. ii., p. 444) that the MS. consisted of only 20 chapters.
[FN#631] Told me by Dr. Baker.
[FN#632] Life, ii., 409.
[FN#633] Communicated by Mr. P. P. Cautley, the Vice-Consul of
Trieste.
[FN#634] Asher's Collection of English Authors. It is now in the
Public Library at Camberwell.
[FN#635] She herself says almost as much in the letters written
during this period. See Chapter xxxix., 177. Letters to Mrs. E. J.
Burton.
[FN#636] See Chapter xxxi.
[FN#637] Letters of Major St. George Burton to me, March 1905.
[FN#638] Unpublished letter to Miss Stisted.
[FN#639] Unpublished letter.
[FN#640] Verses on the Death of Richard Burton. The New Review,
Feb. 1891.
[FN#641] Unpublished. Lent me by Mr. Mostyn Pryce.
[FN#642] Unpublished.
[FN#643] See Chapter xiv, 63.
[FN#644] See The Land of Midian Revisited, ii., 223, footnote.
[FN#645] The Lusiads, Canto ii., Stanza 113.
[FN#646] She impressed them on several of her friends. In each case
she said, "I particularly wish you to make these facts as public as
possible when I am gone."
[FN#647] We mean illiterate for a person who takes upon herself to
write, of this even a cursory glance through her books will convince
anybody.
[FN#648] For example, she destroyed Sir Richard's Diaries.
Portions of these should certainly have been published.
[FN#649] Some of them she incorporated in her "Life" of her husband,
which contains at least 60 pages of quotations from utterly
worthless documents.
[FN#650] I am told that it is very doubtful whether this was a bona
fide offer; but Lady Burton believed it to be so.
[FN#651] Romance of Isabel Lady Burton, vol. ii., p. 725.
[FN#652] The Romance of Isabel Lady Burton.
[FN#653] Lady Burton, owing to a faulty translation, quite mistook
Nafzawi's meaning. She was thinking of the concluding verse as
rendered in the 1886 edition, which runs as follows:--
"I certainly did wrong to put this book together,
But you will pardon me, nor let me pray in vain;
O God! award no punishment for this on judgment day!
And thou, O reader, hear me conjure thee to say, So be it!"
But the 1904 and, more faithful edition puts it very differently.
See Chapter xxxiv.
[FN#654] An error, as we have shown.
[FN#655] Mr. T. Douglas Murray, the biographer of Jeanne d'Arc and
Sir Samuel Baker, spent many years in Egypt, where he met Burton.
He was on intimate terms of friendship with Gordon, Grant, Baker
and De Lesseps.
[FN#656] Written in June 1891.
[FN#657] Life, ii., p. 450.
[FN#658] It would have been impossible to turn over half-a-dozen
without noticing some verses.
[FN#659] We have seen only the first volume. The second at the time
we went to press had not been issued.
[FN#660] See Chapter xxxiv.
[FN#661] The Kama Shastra edition.
[FN#662] See Chapter xxvi.
[FN#663] She often used a typewriter.
[FN#664] The same may be said of Lady Burton's Life of her husband.
I made long lists of corrections, but I became tired; there were
too many. I sometimes wonder whether she troubled to read the
proofs at all.
[FN#665] His edition of Catullus appeared in 1821 in 2 vols. 12 mos.
[FN#666] Poem 67. On a Wanton's Door.
[FN#667] Poem 35. Invitation to Caecilius.
[FN#668] Poem 4. The Praise of his Pinnance.
[FN#669] Preface to the 1898 Edition of Lady Burton's Life of Sir
Richard Burton.
[FN#670] In her Life of Sir Richard, Lady Burton quotes only a few
sentences from these Diaries. Practically she made no use of them
whatever. For nearly all she tells us could have been gleaned from
his books.
[FN#671] In the church may still be seen a photograph of Sir Richard
Burton taken after death, and the words quoted, in Lady Burton's
handwriting, below. She hoped one day to build a church at Ilkeston
to be dedicated to our Lady of Dale. But the intention was never
carried out. See Chapter xxxi.
[FN#672] See Chapter xxxvii, 172.
[FN#673] It must be remembered that Canon Wenham had been a personal
friend of both Sir Richard and Lady Burton. See Chapter xxxvi.,
169.
[FN#674] This letter will also be found in The Romance of Isabel
Lady Burton, ii., 722.
[FN#675] All my researches corroborate this statement of Lady
Burton's. Be the subject what it might, he was always the genuine
student.
[FN#676] "It is a dangerous thing, Lady Burton," said Mr. Watts-
Dunton to her, "to destroy a distinguished man's manuscripts, but in
this case I think you did quite rightly."
[FN#677] Miss Stisted, Newgarden Lodge, 22, Manor Road, Folkestone.
[FN#678] 67, Baker Street, Portman Square.
[FN#679] True Life, p. 415.
[FN#680] Frontispiece to this volume.
[FN#681] The picture now at Camberwell.
[FN#682] Now at Camberwell.
[FN#683] To Dr. E. J. Burton, 23rd March 1897.
[FN#684] I think this expression is too strong. Though he did not
approve of the Catholic religion as a whole, there were features in
it that appealed to him.
[FN#685] 14th January 1896, to Mrs. E. J. Burton.
[FN#686] Sir Richard often used to chaff her about her faulty
English and spelling. Several correspondents have mentioned this.
She used to retort good-humouredly by flinging in his face some of
his own shortcomings.
[FN#687] Unpublished letter.
[FN#688] Payne, i., 63. Burton Lib. Ed., i., 70.
[FN#689] Unpublished letter.
[FN#690] Lady Burton included only the Nights Proper, not the
Supplementary Tales.
[FN#691] The Romance of Isabel Lady Burton, ii., 763.
[FN#692] Holywell Lodge, Meads, Eastbourne.
[FN#693] Left unfinished. Mr. Wilkins incorporated the fragment in
The Romance of Isabel Lady Burton.
[FN#694] Huxley died 29th June 1895.
[FN#695] Mrs. FitzGerald died 18th January 1902, and is buried under
the Tent at Mortlake. Mrs. Van Zeller is still living. I had the
pleasure of hearing from her in 1905.
[FN#696] She died in 1904.
[FN#697] Or Garden of Purity, by Mirkhond. It is a history of
Mohammed and his immediate successors.
[FN#698] Part 3 contains the lives of the four immediate successors
of Mohammed.
[FN#699] Now Madame Nicastro.
[FN#700] Letter of Miss Daisy Letchford to me. 9th August, 1905.
[FN#701] See Midsummer Night's Dream, iii., 2.
[FN#702] Close of the tale of "Una El Wujoud and Rose in Bud."
[FN#703] These lines first appeared in The New Review, February
1891. We have to thank Mr. Swinburne for kindly permitting us to
use them.
[FN#704] Two islands in the middle of the Adriatic.
[FN#705] J.A.I. Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great
Britain and Ireland.
[FN#706] T.E.S.--Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London.
New Series.
[FN#707] A.R.--Anthropological Review.
[FN#708] A.R. iv. J.A.S.--Fourth vol. of the Anthropological Review
contained in the Journal of the Anthropological Society.
[FN#709] Anthrop. Anthropologia--the Organ of the London
Anthropological Society.
[FN#710] M.A.S. Memoirs read before the Anthropological Society
of London.
[FN#711] The titles of the volumes of original poetry are in
italics. The others are those of translations.
[FN#712] Zohra--the name of the planet Venus. It is sometimes given
to girls.
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