The oriental tale in England in the eighteenth century

Columbia Snibersttg

STUDIES IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE

THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

LN THE

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

THIS monograph has been recommended by the
Department of Comparative Literature as a contri-
bution to the literature of the subject worthy of

publication.

J. B. FLETCHER,

Professor of Comparative Literature.

THE

ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

IN THE

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

BY

MAKTHA PIKE CONANT, Pn.D.

Nrfn

THE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
1908

All rights reserved

COPTKIOHT, 1908,
BY THE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PEE88.

Set up and electrotyped. Published January, 1908.

Xorfaoofc

J. 8. Cashing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

MY SISTER
CHARLOTTE HOWARD CONANT

PREFACE

THIS essay is a study in eighteenth-century
English literature. The author disclaims any
knowledge of the oriental languages and attempts
no discussion of the ultimate sources of those
genuine oriental tales that appeared in English
in the eighteenth century. Such a discussion
is not the purpose of this study. The aim here
is rather to give a clear and accurate descrip-
tion of a distinct component part of eighteenth-
century English fiction in its relation to its
French sources and to the general current of
English thought. The oriental fiction that was
not original in English came, almost without
exception, from French imitations or transla-
tions of genuine oriental tales ; hence, as a study
in comparative literature, a consideration of the
oriental tale in England during the eighteenth
century possesses distinct interest. Moreover the
presence of this oriental and pseudo-oriental fic-
tion in England, — as in France, — and the mingled
enthusiasm and disapproval with which in both
countries it was greeted, testify to the strength
of established classicism and to the advent of

viii PREFACE

the new romantic spirit. The history of the
oriental tale in England in the eighteenth cen-
tury might be called an episode in the develop-
yjment of English Romanticism.

No general survey such as the present volume
undertakes, has before been made. Certain
chapters in Die Vorlaufer der Modernen Novelle
im 18ten Jahrhundert (1897), by Dr. Rudolph
Fiirst, approach most nearly to the present treat-
ment and have given valuable suggestions;
H. W. Weber's Introduction to his Tales of the
East (1812) contains useful data; M. Pierre
Martino's work, L 'Orient dans la litterature
frangaise au XVIP et au XVIII' sieck (1906),
came to hand after this essay was practically
completed, but has proved of distinct value;
and M. Victor Chauvin's monumental Biblio-
graphic des ouvrages arabes (1892-1905) is indis-
pensable to any student of this subject. The
Bibliography, Appendix B, II., pp. 294—306, of
this volume gives the full titles of these and
other books of reference to which I am indebted.
None of these, however, gives anything except
incidental or partial treatment of this subject.
No attempt has hitherto been made to consider
in a single survey all the oriental and pseudo-
oriental fiction that appeared in England during
the eighteenth century.

PREFACE ix

It is a pleasure to take this opportunity of
thanking the many friends whose assistance
I have found invaluable. This book is the fruit
of studies begun under the inspiration of Pro-
fessor George Edward Woodberry, — an inspira-
tion best appreciated by those students who had
the rare privilege of hearing his lectures and
receiving his illuminating and kindly criticism.
To Dr. Frank W. Chandler, Professor of English
in the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and for-
merly Instructor in Comparative Literature in
Columbia University, I owe my first definite
interest in the English Romantic Movement.
To Dr. J. E. Spingarn, Adjunct-Professor of
Comparative Literature, I am deeply indebted
for friendly criticisms and counsel. To Professor
Jefferson B. Fletcher, of the Department of
Comparative Literature, I am especially grate-
ful for constant assistance during the past year
— assistance as generous as it was helpful;
without it I could hardly have brought my work
to completion. To many of my fellow-students
at Columbia University I am under obligations :
to Miss Mary Gertrude Gushing, now of the
Department of Romance Languages and Lit-
eratures at Mount Holyoke College, for trans-
criptions made at the Bibliotheque Nationale,
Paris; to Mr. A. D. Compton, Instructor in

x PREFACE

English in the College of the City of New York,
for notes on certain oriental tales; to Dr. John
S. Harrison, of the English Department of Ken-
yon College, for assistance in research; to Mr.
S. L. Wolff, Adjunct-Professor of English in the
University of Tennessee, for a study of oriental
allusions in the eighteenth-century periodicals;
to Mr. Wolff and to Dr. S. M. Tucker, Professor
of English in the Florida State College for
Women, for valuable suggestions. I would
acknowledge also the courtesies extended by the
Librarians of the British Museum, by Mr. T.
J. Kiernan of the Harvard University Library,
and by the authorities of the Columbia Univer-
sity Library, especially Mr. Frederic W. Erb.
For assistance in research at the British Museum
I would thank my sister, Charlotte H. Conant;
for similar work at Harvard and in the Boston
Libraries, Miss Mary H. Buckingham. Miss
Buckingham enriched my initial bibliography
by examining the entire Catalogue of Printed
Books of the British Museum. Finally, to Dr.
Duncan B. Macdonald and Dr. Edward Everett
Hale I wish to express my appreciation of their
kindness in lending me valuable books.

The Appendices to the present volume com-
prise Appendix A, Notes, chiefly concerning the
indebtedness of Byron and others to the oriental

PREFACE xi

tales ; and Appendix B, L, a Chronological Table,
giving full titles of the oriental tales considered,
and //., a Bibliography of the books of reference
most useful in a study of this subject. Each
book in Appendix B, L and II. , is numbered,
and will be referred to in footnotes by number
when it is unnecessary to cite the full title;
e.g. in the footnote on p. 2, " Cf. App. B, I., No. 4,
p. 269," reference is made to the full title of the
earliest known edition of the Arabian Nights,
as given on p. 269. The date following the first
mention of an oriental tale is, unless otherwise
specified, the date of the first English edition,
e.g. on p. 13, "1714" following "the Persian
Tales or the Thousand and One Days." Com-
plete lists of the oriental tales by the eighteenth-
century essayists will be found in App. B, I.,
e.g. No. 11, pp. 271, 272, Addison. Unknown
essayists are grouped, e.g. No. 12, p. 272.

M. P. C.

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY,
June, 1907.

CONTENTS

FAGK

INTRODUCTION . . xv

CHAPTER I
THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 1

CHAPTER II
THE MORALISTIC GROUP 73

CHAPTER III
THE PHILOSOPHIC GROUP 112

CHAPTER IV
THE SATIRIC GROUP 155

CHAPTER V
LITERARY ESTIMATE 226

APPENDIX A. NOTES 257

APPENDIX B. I. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE . . 267
APPENDIX B. II. BOOKS OF REFERENCE . . 294

INDEX 307

xiii

INTRODUCTION

IN a study of the oriental tale in England in
the eighteenth century, the high lights fall upon
the Arabian Nights, Dr. Johnson's Rasselas,
Goldsmith's Citizen of the World, and Beckford's
Vathek. The present volume aims to depict
clearly the interesting orientalizing tendency of
which these apparently isolated works were the J
best manifestations — a tendency itself a part of f
the larger movement of English Romanticism, jl
By "the oriental tale in England" I mean all
the oriental and pseudo-oriental fiction — chiefly
prose — that appeared in English, whether writ-
ten originally in English or translated from the
French. Much of the fiction I shall consider
deserves distinctly to be called pseudo-oriental,
Rasselas, for instance, and The Citizen of the
World; on the other hand, much of it, such as
the Arabian Nights and kindred literature, is
genuinely oriental despite its eighteenth-century
dress. By "oriental" I mean pertaining to or
derived from " those countries, collectively, that
begin with Islam on the eastern Mediterranean

xvi INTRODUCTION

and stretch through Asia," * with — so far as
this specific treatment of the subject goes — one
notable exception, Palestine. To the Western
mind to-day the Holy Land occupies, as Pro-
fessor Pierre Martino has pointed out, a unique
position somewhat apart from other oriental
countries, a position which is of course due to
the inherited traditions of Christianity.2 In
the eighteenth century this feeling was far more
pronounced than it is in these days of modern
scholarship ; and therefore, from the eighteenth-
century " oriental " literature under consideration
we may legitimately exclude Hebrew literature
and its imitations. "Oriental," then, includes
here what it included according to Galland, the
first translator of the Arabian Nights into French :
"Sous le nom d'Orientaux, je ne comprends pas
seulement les Arabes et les Persans, mais en-
core les Turcs et les Tartares et presque tous
les peuples de TAsie jusqu'a la Chine, mahome'-
tans ou paiens et idolatres." 3

1 Standard Dictionary of the English Language, Vol. II.,
New York, London, and Toronto, 1895.

2 Martino, Pierre, L'Orient dans la littcrature fran$aise
au XVII* et au XVIII* siecle, Paris, 1906, p. 20.

3 Galland, Paroles remarquables des Orientaux, Paris,
1694, Avertissement, quoted by P. Martino, op. cit.,
p. 221.

INTRODUCTION xvii

The scope of our subject in time is less readily
defined; since, as in the case of most literary
tendencies, both beginning and end were gradual
and transitional. The prelude was sounded in
the late seventeenth century by the first Eng-
lish translation of Marana's satire, The Turkish
Spy. Yet, broadly speaking, the period began
between the years 1704 and 1712, with the first
English version of the Arabian Nights, a book so
different in character from any oriental fiction
then known in England, and so far-reaching in
influence, that it forms the natural point of .
departure. The period drew to a close with the.
advent of the more modern and scholarly transla-
tions of various works made directly from orien-
tal languages, which influenced later the poetry
of Southey, Moore, Byron, and otjiers. For the
approximate date we may tak^!786. In that
year was published Vathek,1 the last notable
oriental tale of the century, itself foreshadowing,
the coming work of scholars and poets. Only
two years earlier Sir William Jones, the great '
orientalist, had given his inaugural lecture as
first president of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.
Yet the date 1786 is approximate only; for in
1 Cf. App. B, I., No. 73, pp. 288, 289.

xviii INTRODUCTION

the sixties and seventies, some direct translations
were made; and in the eighties and nineties
oriental tales appeared, so similar in character
to those of this period that they must logically
be included. For the period as a whole, despite
the transitional nature of the beginning and the
end, has a distinctive character. It is obviously
different from the period that followed. The
latter, beginning with the direct translations by
orientalists, has, from tEe~days of Sir William
Jolie^~1^r^1^ose~oT~Klpling, been~characterized
by an increasing knowledge of the~0riEnt~at first
hand. By travel and residence in the East,
by contact with Eastern peoples, as well as by
study of oriental history, literature, and phi-
losophy, Englishmen of the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries have learned to know more
of the "inscrutable Orient" than their ancestors
of the eighteenth century ever imagined pos-
sible.1 This fact at once and radically differen-

1 Cf. F. Brunetiere, Etudes critiques sur I'histoire de la
Litterature fran<;aise, huitieme serie, Paris, 1907: L'Orient
dans la literature franfaise, p. 183: "Schopenhauer,-
dont la philosophic n'est elle-meme qu'un bouddhisme
occidental, a ecrit quelque part, en 1819 ou 1822, que
'le XIX8 siecle ne devrait guere moins un jour a la con-
naissance du vieux monde oriental que le XVI" siecle
a la decouverte ou a la revelation de I'antiquit6 greco-
romaine.' "

INTRODUCTION xix

tiates these later centuries from the period we
are to consider. A brief glance over the history
of oriental fiction in England previous to the
eighteenth century will make the distinction
equally clear from that side.

Oriental fiction had been borne to England
from an early period by various waves of in-
fluence. As far back as the eleventh century,
fictitious descriptions of the marvels of India are
found in Anglo-Saxon translations of legends
concerning Alexander the Great. During the
Middle Ages many Eastern stories drifted across
Europe by way of Syria, Byzantium, Italy, and
Spain. Merchants and travelers like Marco
Polo, missionaries, pilgrims, and crusaders aided
the oral transmission of this fiction ; and scholars
gave to Europe Latin translations of four grea
collections of genuine oriental tales: Sendebar;
Kalila and Dimna, or The Fables of Bidpai; Dis-
ciplina Clericalis; and Barlaam and Josaphat.
A definite, though not large, share in this
treasure-trove fell to the lot of England and
appeared in the form of metrical romances,
apologues, legends, and tales of adventure.
The fabliau of Dame Siriz, The Proces of the
Sevyn Sages, Mandeville's Voiage, Chaucer's

xx INTRODUCTION

Squier's Tale, — possibly several other Canter-
bury Tales, — are typical instances.

In the sixteenth century, that great period of
translation, were published the first English edi-
tions of the Gesta Romanorum and of the Fabks
of Bidpai, the latter entitled The Morall Phi-
losophic of Doni . . . englished out of Italian
by Thomas North . . . (1570). During the reign
of Elizabeth an entirely new line of intercourse
between England and the East was established
by the voyages of exploration, discovery, and
commerce, characteristic of the Renaissance.
Moreover, since the Fall of Constantinople (1453),
the Turks had been an increasing menace to
Europe. Their ascendancy culminated in the
reign of Soliman the Magnificent (1520-1566),
and their continual advance upon Christendom
was checked only by their great defeat at the
battle of Lepanto (1571). Throughout the
century, as a natural result of these events and
of the voyages referred to above, interest was
aroused in oriental — especially Turkish — his-
tory and fiction. In Painter's Palace of Pleasure,
for instance, we find the stories Mahomet and
Irene, and Sultan Solyman; in the drama such
plays as the Soliman and Perseda, usually as-

INTRODUCTION xxi

cribed to Kyd; Alaham, and Mustapha, by
Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke; and Marlowe's
Tamburlaine. In Shakespeare's plays, one inci-
dent, The Induction to the Taming of the Shrew,
has been traced with a good deal of plausi-
bility to Eastern fiction; otherwise, his works
show no oriental elements of importance. " The
farthest steep of India" as a part of Oberon's
fairy kingdom is possibly drawn from Lord
Berners's prose version of Huon of Bordeaux.
That the scene of Antony and Cleopatra is partly
in the East does not make it anything but a
Roman play.

In the seventeenth century, interest in the"]
Orient was shown by the works of travelers, I
historians, translators of French heroic romances, _J
dramatists, and orientalists. Knolles's famous
Generall History of the Turks appeared in 1603,
a result of the new interest in Turkey mentioned
above, and itself a notable factor in extendin
that interest for years to come. Toward th
middle of the century the pseudo-oriental heroi
romances of Mile, de Scud6ry and others wer
translated and won great popularity. Aftejr'
the Restoration numerous heroic plays on similar
subjects followed in rapid succession. A fejv

xxii INTRODUCTION

of these heroic romances were reprinted in the
eighteenth century and thus form one link be-
tween the fiction of the two periods. Another
link is Sir Roger L'Estrange's version of The
Fables of Bidpai.1 Still another is the Latin
translation by Edward Pococke (1648-1727), son
of the Oxford orientalist, of the Arabian philo-
sophical romance Hai Ebn Yockdhan, which
appeared first in English in the eighteenth cen-
tury. Marana's Turkish Spy has already been
mentioned as a late seventeenth-century prelude
to the oriental tale of our period.

Such was the oriental fiction that had entered
England previous to 1700, and had contributed
to a more or less vague and general imaginative
acquaintance with the Orient. The sudden
advent of the Arabian Nights, full of the life,
the colour, and the glamour of the East — even
in the Gallicized version of Antoine Galland —
naturally opened a new chapter in the history
of oriental fiction in England.

The same had been true in France; in fact,
the entire English movement echoed to a certain
extent the similar French movement. That,
also, — preluded by The Turkish Spy, — was

1 Cf. pp. 104, 105, and App. B, I., No. 10, p. 271, post.

INTRODUCTION xxiii

inaugurated by the Arabian Nights, first intro-
duced into Europe by Galland in the famous
translation just referred to. Meeting with in-
stant and great — though not unanimous —
favour, the Arabian Nights was followed at once
by the equally popular translations by Pe"tis
de la Croix, L'histoire de la Sultane de Perse et
des Vizirs, Contes Turcs (1707), and Les Mille et
un Jour [sic], Contes Persans (1710-1712). The
time was ripe in France for this new literary
material. At the beginning of the new century
there were especial reasons for the welcome given
to oriental stories and to Perrault's fairy tales, \
the chief reason being a natural reaction from the
dominant classicism of Boileau. From Fairy-
land and the Far East two streams began to flow
into the main current of French Romanticism.
The romanticists of that day went wild over the
fascinating tales of "merchants, cadis, slaves,
and calendars," in a manner foreshadowing the
nineteenth-century romanticists who enthusi-
astically welcomed Les Orientates.

Moreover, interest in the Orient had been \ ,<
growing throughout the seventeenth century
in connection with the colonial and commercial
expansion of France in the reign of Louis XIV.

xxiv INTRODUCTION

Merchants, Jesuit missionaries, travelers, and
./ambassadors had returned with information and

( entertaining or tragic stories.1 Galland and
y Pe"tis de la Croix, in their turn, found an enthu-

/ siastic reception.2 Their collections were suc-
ceeded by a swarm of preposterous imitations,
such as those of Gueullette, pretending also to
be translated from oriental manuscripts and
catering to the inordinate popular demand for
things oriental. Fantastic elements from the
fairy tales of Perrault and his successors were
mingled with the extravagances of oriental
stories, until the torrent of enthusiasm rapidly
spent its force and left several new channels
open to French fiction. Satire on both oriental
tales and fairy stories inevitably appeared, and
proved a sharp weapon in the hands of Hamilton,
Caylus, and a score of others. Philosophical
satirists like Montesquieu (Lettres Persanes, 1721)
found the oriental tale a convenient medium
for scarcely veiled criticism of French society;
and the versatile genius of Voltaire perceived

1 M. de Cezy, French ambassador to Constantinople,
thirty years before Racine's Bajazet, brought the original
story to Paris. Cf. P. Martino, op. cit., p. 196.

2 Galland and Petis de la Croix both went to the East
with embassies.

INTRODUCTION

xxv

the latent capabilities of this fiction as a vehicle
for philosophy as well as for satire. The coarse-
ness present in many oriental tales, even in
Galland's expurgated and Gallicized Arabian
Nights, undoubtedly afforded to Cre"billon fils,
and others, a starting point for their numer-
ous contes licencieux, which satirized the ex-
travagance of the fairy stories and the oriental
tales and ridiculed the moralizing tendency as
well. The latter propensity was prominent in
France toward the middle of the century, wit-
ness the numerous works of Marmontel, the
founder of the so-called conte moral, or tale of,
manners and morals. Three of his tales are
oriental in setting. Parody and the use of the
genre as a vehicle for satire and didacticism
assisted its decline.

In England the general development of the
oriental tale was similar, partly because of the
direct influence of numerous translations from
the French and partly because of the presence
of tendencies in England analogous to those in
France. The propensity to moralize and to
philosophize, the love of satire, and the incipient
romantic spirit, were common to both countries,
although present — as we shall see — in vary-

xxvi INTRODUCTION

ing degrees. In England this fiction falls natu-
rally into four groups, — imaginative, moralis-
tic, philosophic, and satiric. The imaginative
group, the earliest, and, at the beginning of
the century, the most significant, diminished
as the other groups increased in strength,
but revived again near the end of our
period in Beckford's Vathek. The moralistic
and philosophic groups are prominent in the
periodical essays from Addison to Dr. Johnson.
The philosophic group comprises besides Rasse-
las several translations from Voltaire's contes
philosophiques. The satiric group is chiefly
exemplified by the pseudo-letters culminating,
in English, in Goldsmith's Citizen of the World,
and by Count Hamilton's entertaining parodies.
One work, indeed, belonging in the imaginative
group, was influential throughout the whole
period : the Arabian Nights — as numerous edi-
tions testify — was a permanent factor in the
development of the oriental tale in England.

Chapters I., II., III., and IV. of this volume
will be devoted to a description of the most im-
portant characteristics of these successive groups,
and the final chapter will present a literary
estimate of the genre as a whole.

THE ORIENTAL TALE IN
ENGLAND

CHAPTER I

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP

OF all the wide lands open to the wandering
imagination none has a more perennial charm
than the mysterious East. To that magical
country the Arabian Nights, ever since its first
appearance in English in the early years of the
eighteenth century, has proved a favourite gate-
way, over which might well be inscribed : —

" Be glad, thou reder, and thy sorwe of-caste,
Al open am I ; passe in, and hy the faste ! "

With the exception of the Hebrew Scriptures^
the Orient has given us no book that has become
so intimate a part of our imaginative inheritance.
"Aladdin's lamp," the "Open Sesame," "chang-
ing old lamps for new," " the Old Man of the Sea,"
have entered into familiar household speech.
Many a reader has echoed the mood of Haw-

2 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

thorne, "To Persia and Arabia and all the gor-
geous East I owed a pilgrimage for the sake of
their magic tales." 1

It would be superfluous to describe this famil-
iar book in detail. That ground has been well
covered by such translators and essayists as Sir
Richard Burton and Mr. John Payne. Our pur-
pose is rather to examine briefly the general
character of the Arabian Nights 2 in order to
understand the significance of its sudden entrance
into the England of Queen Anne. The earliest
collection of oriental tales to appear in English
in the century, it is also the richest in pure im-
aginative power and therefore has a twofold
right to first consideration in this chapter.

One of the chief elements of charm in the
Arabian Nights has already been suggested —
the sense of mystery and magic. The arrange-
ment of the stories enhances this impression.
At first glance the form seems simple. The frame-
tale, that well-known device believed to be of
oriental origin, is the story of the beautiful
Scheherezade telling tales to the cruel sultan

1 Nathaniel Hawthorne, by G. E. Woodberry, in the
American Men of Letters Series. Boston and New York,
1902, p. 54; cf. p. 12.

2 Cf. App. B, L, No. 4, p. 269.

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 3

for a thousand and one nights. But within
this simple setting the stories are so interwoven
and so varied — apologues, romances, anecdotes,
and fables — that the total effect is as intricate
as the design of an oriental carpet. One strange
story follows another in bewildering profusion
until the reader seems to be walking in a dream
"in the days of Haroun Alraschid," when the
unexpected always happens. In this land of /
wonder and enchantment any threatening cloud
may assume the form of an enormous genie,
white-bearded, terrific, with torch in hand and
a voice like thunder, "a Slave of the Lamp,"
ready to carry a sleeping prince a thousand
leagues through the air or to erect over night a
palace of dazzling splendour; any serpent may
be an enchanted fairy; any beautiful woman
may be a disguised princess " or a cruel sorceress
with power to transform human beings into dogs
or black stones ; and at every turn one may meet
African magicians who can pronounce the " Open
Sesame" to subterranean treasure-caves. In
the bazaars fairies disguised as old women sell
magic carpets to fortunate princes ; by the way-
side an aged dervish sits for the sole purpose of
directing seekers toward the talking bird, the

4 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

singing tree, and the yellow water. "The won-
drous horse of brass" is no more marvelous than
the roc, "a white bird of monstrous size and
of such strength that it takes elephants from the
plains to the tops of the mountains." In the
world of the Arabian Nights is to be found the
magic mirror that reveals character by remaining y
unsullied only in the presence of the pure in heart.
On the sea furious storms arise and drive ships
to sure disaster against the black mountain of
adamant. Shipwrecked Sindbad meets strange
dwarfs; "tremendous black giants, one-eyed
and as high as a tall palm-tree"; and, most
dangerous of all, the terrible Old Man of the Sea.
Shark-headed monsters and beautiful mermaids
arise from the deep ; and, if one could only look
down far enough, one would see in the ocean
depths vast kingdoms of boundless wealth and
unutterable beauty, ruled over by the flame-
breathing princes of the sea. In these enchanted
domains it is not surprising to find superlatively
horrible monsters " with the head of an elephant
and the body of a tiger" ; or to encounter blind-
ing flashes of lightning, " followed by most tre-
mendous thunder, . . . hideous darkness, . . .
a dreadful cry, . . . and an earthquake such as

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 5

Asrayel is to cause on the day of judgment."
The same naive love of magical unreality that
adorns these stories with such transcendent
horrors produces the scenes of "surpassing
beauty," which have made the splendour of the
Arabian Nights proverbial.1 Aladdin's mag-
nificent palace — jeweled windows and all —
is eclipsed by the palace of the third Calendar,
"more splendid than imagination can conceive."
And yet, despite all this misty atmosphere
of wonder and magic, there is in the Arabian
Nights a strange sense of reality in the midst
of unreality, a verisimilitude which accounts in
large part for the steady popularity the book

1 Proverbial despite the "extreme simplicity of its
style," noted by Mr. John Payne, Vol. IX., pp. 373,375,
of his edition of The Book of the Thousand Nights and
a Night. London, 1884. " Nothing can be more unlike
the idea of barbaric splendour, of excessive and hetero-
geneous ornament, that we are accustomed to associate
with the name, than the majority of the tales that com-
pose the collection. The life described in it is mainly
that of the people, those Arabs so essentially brave, sober,
hospitable, and kindly, almost hysterically sensitive to
emotions of love and pity as well as to artistic impressions.

**********
The splendours of description, the showers of barbaric
pearl and gold, that are generally attributed to the work
exist but in isolated instances. The descriptions are
usually extremely naive."

6 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

has enjoyed with the English people. The
cities of Bagdad and Cairo, the countries of the
East, the Seven Seas, are real places, though so
far away that they seem on the borders of fairy-
land. Time as well as space is an actuality,
however remote and vague. Plausible intro-
ductory phrases imitate the manner of a vera-
cious historian, e.g., "There was a Sultan named
Mirza who had peaceably filled the throne of
India many years." It is easy for the reader
to imagine himself present at the scenes de-
scribed, e.g., the opening of the divan of the
mock caliph in the Sleeper Awakened, when
"the grand vizier Giafar and the judge of the
police . . . first bowed themselves down be-
fore him and paid him the salutations of the
morning." In the bezesteins silk merchants,
glass dealers, and jewelers sit by their wares
and fall in love with veiled ladies; venders of
roses, dervishes, and beggars crowd past; and
dogs who may be enchanted princes tell false
coin from true to the delight of the lookers-on.
At the water-gate of the palace on the Tigris,
the favourite slave of the sultaness Zobeide out-
wits the crabbed old eunuch and secures safe
admission for the trunk containing her lover.

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 7

Prince Houssain tells us travelers' tales of the
brazen temple in which "the principal idol was
. . . of massive gold; its eyes were rubies, so
artificially set, that it seemed to look at the spec-
tator in whatever direction he stood." When
the king; of Serendjb appears in public, he has a
throne fixed on the back of an elephant and is
surrounded by attendants clad in silk and
cloth of gold; "and the officer before him cries
out occasionally, 'Behold . . . the potent and
redoubtable sultan of the Indies, whose palace
is covered with an hundred thousand rubies,
. . . greater than the greatest of princes ! '
After which the officer who is behind cries out,
'This monarch, so great, so powerful, must die,
must die, must die.' The officer who is before
replies, 'Praise be to him who liveth forever.'" *
Other customs are described in equally vivid
detail. The obsequies of a prince include long
processions of lamenting guards, anchorites,
and maidens; marriage ceremonies are accom-
panied by feasting, music, dancing, and the
bride's seven-fold salutation of her husband.
"The pure religion of our holy prophet" is con-
trasted with the cruel rites of fire-worshipers.

1 Cf. Rambler, No. 17.

8 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

Devout Mussulmans pass through the streets
to the mosques and make pilgrimages to Mecca.

But of all the glimpses of Eastern life the most
interesting is the constantly recurring picture of
the oriental story-teller. Everywhere — in the
bazaars, by the wayside, in palace gardens or
fishermen's cottages, during the feasts or before
the caliph's tribunal, by night and by day —
the teller of tales is sure of an interested audi-
ence. The variety of stories in the Arabian
Nights makes credible the theory of recent editors,
that the ultimate sources were equally diverse,
— an hypothesis that goes far toward explain-
ing the artistic excellences and limitations of
the collection.

What wonder that, with listeners clamouring
like children for another story, each narrator
exerted his ingenuity to outdo his predecessors
and, like Scheherezade herself, promised greater
marvels next time? In most of the tales one
surprising adventure succeeds another with
kaleidoscopic rapidity, unconnected except by
the mere presence of the hero. In that respect
these tales resemble the modern historical ro-
mance. The chief appeal is to the listener's
or reader's curiosity, and little thought is given

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 9

to the structural unity of the narrative. There
is a succession of events, but rarely any causal
sequence. Even in so capital a story as Alad-
din the two elements of the climax — Aladdin's
marriage and the magician's resolve upon ven-
geance— are loosely knit by chance and by magic.
The close of the average story is usually as mov-
able a point as the climax. If the narrator
thinks of another incident, he merely adds a post-
script. Witness the Story of the Barber's Sixth
Brother, in which the misfortunes of Shacabac
after the Barmecide's death are foisted upon the
admirably dramatic tale of the Barmecide's feast.
But, though the majority of the tales possess
little structural unity, many individual incidents
are perfect dramatic sketches, cleverly intro-
duced, wrought to a climax, developed to a de"-
nouement, and characterized by compression and
rapid movement no less than by brilliant de-
scriptive phrases and good dialogue. Such are
the disastrous day-dream of Alnaschar the glass
merchant, the adventure of the barber's blind
brother, and the ruse of Abon Hassan and his
wife to win gifts from the caliph and Zobeide
by feigning death.1 The denouement of the last

1 The Story of the Sleeper Awakened or The Dead Alive.

10 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

will readily be recalled. The perplexed caliph
offered a thousand pieces of gold to any one who
could prove which of the two, Abon Hassan or
his wife, died first. "Instantly a hand was
held out, and a voice from under Abon Hassan's
pall was heard to say, 'I died first, Commander
of the Faithful, give me the thousand pieces of
gold.'" This dramatic instinct for situation or
incident is especially noticeable in the numer-
ous clever introductions. The favourite device
of the disguised caliph Haroun wandering
through the city in search of adventure never
fails to awaken interest. Mysterious scenes of
grief or sudden exclamations stimulate curiosity
at once. "'For God's sake, sir,' replied the
stranger, ' let me go ! I cannot without horror
look upon that abominable barber!"

Beyond incident and situation, however,
the dramatic instinct of the story-teller does not
go. He shows little psychological insight. His
characters are wooden automata, picturesque
truly, but neither individualized nor alive.
Various figures recur repeatedly: the prodigal
youth, forsaken by his fair-weather friends;
the tyrant sultan; the clever man; the super-
lative hero; the unjust judge; good and bad

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 11

viziers ; and good and bad sons. They might be
shifted from one story to another with no more
shock than Aladdin's palace felt when lifted
and set down again. The Arabian Nights con-
tains, fortunately, little or no direct moralizing,
but in these abstract types it offered suggestions
not lost upon the eighteenth-century writers
of moralistic oriental tales. Even familiar fig-
ures like Aladdin and Sindbad owe their exist-
ence as individuals to the reader's sympathetic
imagination. They are interesting, not in them-
selves, but on account of their marvelous ad-
ventures.

For, after all, one supreme attraction of the
Arabian Nights is the j3haTmjQf_pure_. adventure, -
the story for the sake of the story. Senti-
mental tales are exceptional; in only eight is
love the chief interest. Adventurous tales of
the Sindbad type are more characteristic. It is
noticeable that in many of the stories where
picaresque or farcical realism is strong, magic
plays no part. But in all the tales, whether .
magical or realistic, the emphasis is thrown on
events. Exciting incidents are given verisimili-
tude by picturesque details, until the reader,
forgetting for the moment the absence of the

12 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

deeper realities of character, comes under the
spell of pure romance, — as in the case of Rdb-
inson Crusoe, the novels of Dumas, or the
folk-ballads, — and must himself "mitdichten."
The magical atmosphere, the rich variety of
dramatic incident, the spirit of adventure, and
the brilliant background, atone in part for
the lack, in the Arabian Nights, of struc-
tural unity and characterization. Across the
scene moves the seemingly endless, ever shift-
ing pageant of dramatis personce, all sorts and
conditions of men: princes and viziers, rope-
makers and fishermen, dervishes and cadis,
sheiks and slaves, queens and beggar-women.
One can see them, hear them speak, and guess
at their characters as one might in observing
passers-by in the bazaars of some strange East-
ern city. For the time being it is easy to follow
Ali Baba to the forest to gather wood; or to
share the fright of the fisherman who liberates
the genie; or to hear the tired porter Hindbad
railing at Fortune as he rests in the cool street
sprinkled with rose-water, while the white-
bearded, travel-wise Sindbad listens from his
palace window and summons the poor man in;
or to feel the human interest in the dramatic

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 13

scene that serves as the general background -
Scheherezade saving the lives of her country-
women by telling her tales to the sultan.

The collection of oriental tales next in order
of importance is the Persian Tales or the Thou-
sand and One Days l (1714), the companion-piece
to the Arabian Nights. The plan is similar:
a frame-tale which introduces and concludes
the collection and links the successive stories.
But in the Persian Tales, instead of a sultan
who has lost faith in women, the central figure
is the princess of Casmire, who, having dreamed
that she saw an ungrateful stag forsaking a
hind, has lost faith in men and has decided never
to marry. Her beauty drives men mad; the
king, her father, is in despair ; and her old nurse,
Sutlememe", undertakes to convert her by tales of
faithful lovers. For a thousand and one days the
tales are told, but each hero is criticized by the
skeptical and obdurate princess. She is finally
persuaded to marry the prince of Persia only
by the magic powers and religious authority of
a holy dervish. The conclusion of the frame-
tale is unnecessarily complicated by the intro-
duction of the witch Mehrefsa, a Persian Circe.

1 Cf. App. B, I., No. 15, p. 273.

14 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

There is at the close an attempt to recall the
introduction by the story of the prince's dream
that the princess, " fairer than a houri," appeared
to him in a flowery meadow and told him of her
dream and consequent loss of faith in mankind.
But this incident gives only a superficial unity
to the frame-tale; structural unity is lacking.
The same criticism holds true of the majority of
individual stories in the Persian Tales. Con-
siderable unity of feeling, however, is given to
the collection by the fact that Sutlememe's
avowed purpose holds her chiefly to one theme, —
true love, — which often rises above the sensu-
ous or the ridiculously sentimental and throws
a pleasant light over the stories as a whole.

This characteristic differentiates the Persian
Tales at once from the Arabian Nights. For
instance, a typical story in the Persian Tales
begins as follows: the hero, Couloufe, a youth
of noble birth, having wasted his substance,
wanders to a far-off city. A mysterious slave
in the bazaar beckons him. He follows into a
palace ; enters one hall after another, each more
glorious than the last; and beholds pillars of
"massy gold," silver trees with emeralds for
leaves, singing birds behind golden lattices,

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 15

fragrant roses growing around marble basins of
crystal water, banquets on sandalwood tables,
little pages offering wine in cups made of single
rubies; and, finally, the princess arrayed in
"rose-coloured taffeta, thick-sown with pearls,"
seated on a golden throne, surrounded by "ra-
diant damsels" singing to the lute or dulcimer,
"Love but once, but love forever." "Couloufe
imagined that he saw the moon surrounded by
the stars, and fainted, quite overpowered with
the sight of this ravishing object." To faint
seems, in fact, the customary mode of showing
affection. In another tale, the heroine on the
slightest provocation melts into " floods of tears"
and the hero is not far behind with his tears and
swoons. Reproached by his mistress, he says,
" It struck me to my very soul, and in the height
of my grief ... I fell into a fit and swooned
away at the foot of the throne." Violent agita-
tion, "a languishing air," transports of passion
or of wrath, remorse which causes death, call
to mind the eighteenth-century novel of senti-
ment.

More sentimental than the Arabian Nights,
the Persian Tales is also more fantastic. The
talking bird of the prophet Isaac, which came

16 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

to aid Aboulfouaris on the desert island, had a
blue head, red eyes, yellow wings, and a green
body. We are not surprised when the hero says,
" I had never seen one like it." This remarkable
bird is, however, eclipsed in the same story by
an ugly Afrite with a nose like an elephant's
trunk and with one eye blood-red, the other blue,
who led Aboulfouaris past roaring lions, huge
dragons, and fierce griffins. The Afrite and the
griffins themselves seem commonplace beside
the prophet Elias, who is pictured as a cavalier
wearing a green turban set with rubies and riding
a rose-coloured horse under whose feet the earth
immediately produces flowers. In describing
scenes of beauty or of horror the Persian Tales
is far more lavish than the Arabian Nights.
The princess Tourandocte, asking riddles of
Prince Calaf, "not satisfied with putting this
question to him, . . . maliciously threw off her
veil, to dazzle and confound him with the luster
of her beauty. Her despite and shame [at his
having guessed her other riddles] had given her
a blush which added new charms, . . . her head
was adorned with . . . flowers ; . . . and her eyes
shone brighter than the stars, brighter than the
sun when he shines in his full glory at the open-

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 17

ing of the black cloud. The amorous son of
Timurtasch, at the sight of this incomparable
princess . . . stood mute." Scenes of horror
are equally marvelous. The Persian Old Man
of the Sea, for instance, is a huge monster with
tiger's eyes and an impenetrable skin, who meets
his death only by battling with "the greatest
roc that was ever seen."

Like the Arabian Nights, the Thousand and
One Days carries us to a land of magic and en-
chantment. There we find the magic moun-
tain of polished steel which draws all ships to
it with fatal power; the ring with Solomon's
seal; and the magic chest that transports its
occupant through the air when guided by pres-
sure of certain springs, like the horse of brass.
There are bad genii, black and lean with spark-
ling eyes and horns ; and there are good spirits,
clothed in white like "religious Sophis." There
are magicians like the witch Bedra, who sits
in a dismal cavern with a great book open upon
her knees, in which she reads before a furnace of
gold, wherein there is a pot of silver, full of black
earth that boils without fire. Caverns of treas-
ure contain kings and princesses in magic sleep.
One amusing variation from the ordinary treas-

18 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

ure-cave is the cavern of books. Avicena, the
sage, says: "Towards the Caspian Sea there is
a mountain which is called the Red Mountain,
because it is covered with roses throughout the
year." At the foot is a cavern of vast extent,
the doors of which by virtue of a talisman open
once a year of their own accord and shut again
in half an hour and fifteen minutes, and if "any
bookish man, too intent upon his choice of au-
thors," stay, he is sure to be starved to death.
"The wise Chec Chehabeddin" gathered there
twenty thousand books, which treat of the phi-
losopher's stone, of the method of discovering
hidden treasure, of changing men into beasts,
and of giving souls to vegetables : "all the secrets
of nature." 1 Apparently this remarkable li-
brary was carefully catalogued and efficiently
watched by genii, who seized all persons that neg-
lected to return books and "tormented them
cruelly, . . . even to death." 2

1 The Persian Tales, in Tales of the East, edited by
Henry Weber. Edinburgh, 1812, Vol. II., p. 455.

2 Washington Irving compares the reading-room of the
British Museum to the scene in " an old Arabian tale, of
a philosopher who was shut up in an enchanted library,
in the bosom of a mountain, that opened only once a
year; where he made the spirits of the place obey his

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 19

One of the greatest charms of the Persian
Tales, as of its better-known rival, lies in the
mingling of reality and unreality. Genuine
glimpses of oriental customs and beliefs alternate
with strange adventures. The scenes are laid
in real places, but the Eastern names have a
magic all their own. We see Aboulfouaris,
"the Great Voyager," sailing down the Gulf of
Basra, between Persia and Araby the Blest,
toward Ormus and the kingdom of Indes. It is
easy for the fancy to fly as on a magic carpet from
the vale of Cashmere, from Carisme and Canda-
har to Golconda and Samarcande; or to sail
past China to the Isle of Cheristany till our ship
drives "to the Strait of the Moluccas, south of
the Philippines into seas unknown to our
mariners."

Strange customs are described with a lavish
and yet plausible use of detail. The throne of
the king of China was "made of Catai steel in
the form of a dragon, about three cubits high;

commands, and bring him books of all kinds of dark
knowledge, so that at the end of the year, when the magic
portal once more swung open on its hinges, he issued forth
so versed in forbidden lore, as to be able to soar above the
heads of the multitude and to control the powers of
Nature." — The Art of Bookmaking, in the Sketch-Book.

20 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

over it was a canopy of yellow satin adorned with
diamonds supported by four lofty pillars of the
same Catai steel." The king, when disposed
"to take the diversion of fowling, . . . was
clothed in a straight caffetan, and his beard was
tied up in a black bag." Grief of the Chinese
courtiers for their king's death was expressed
by dyeing their faces yellow and strewing rose
leaves before the throne. In the story of Aboul-
fouaris's first voyage occurs an elaborate de-
scription of the suttee — the funeral pyre, the
ablutions, the gorgeous apparel, and the volun-
tary suicide of the widow.

Other customs described are masquerades,
visits, and feasts. On one festival night fire-
works were set off, sherbets and sweetmeats were
offered to every one, dancing to the tambours
anddeffs took place in the square, and "Calen-
ders ran to and fro in the street like men trans-
ported with frenzy." " The shops in all the great
streets and squares were hung with tapestry
. . . illuminated with sashes that contained
some verse out of the Alcoran; . . . the sacred
book might be read entire as you walked the
streets. It seemed as if the Angel Gabriel had
brought it down to our great prophet a second

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 21

time in characters of light." The most binding
oath is, "I swear by the black stone of the
sacred temple of Mecca and by the holy grove
of Medina, where the tomb of our prophet lies."
"There is no other God but one, and Mahomet
is his prophet." Belief in the divine pen of fire
that writes on a tablet of light is referred to in
the story of Couloufe. "I know not whether
God wills that I die or live for you, but at least
I know well that it will never be written in heaven
that I shall repudiate you." There are several
curious references to Eastern philosophies,
e.g., the captive princess who has just .stabbed
herself says: "[I learned in infancy] the doc-
trine of Xaca, and you need not then wonder I
had the courage to do this. I am returning to
my original nothing." The king replies, "May
you . . . after having passed through the nine
hells, be born again daughter of another sov-
ereign as at the first transmigration." In the
tale of Fadlallah and Zemroude the idea of trans-
migration is prominent.

Scattered through the Persian Tales are inci-
dents and phrases suggesting familiar European
stories. It is interesting to note the resemblances,
but impossible to say whether the original source

22 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

was oriental or European.1 For instance, this
version of the Ballad of the Heir of Linne occurs.
Atalmulc, the spendthrift son of a rich jeweler,
had been told by his dying father that after
he had wasted all his patrimony, he should tie
a rope to the branch of a certain tree in the
garden and "prevent the miseries of poverty."
Atalmulc, thinking his father had suggested
suicide, endeavoured to hang himself. The
branch broke, disclosing the careful father's
hoard of jewels. In the story of King Ruzvan-
chad the king marries the princess of the genii
with the promise never to reprove her, but to
say, " She is a genie and has special reasons for
her actions." He breaks his promise, after
great provocation; and she vanishes, to return
after ten years to reward his constancy. There
is a resemblance here to the story of Undine.
Both tales, like Lohengrin and Cupid and Psyche,
are variants on the world-wide theme: Lack
of faith means loss of love. Other incidents in
Ruzvanchad might find parallels in Celtic, or
Teutonic, or Greek legends. The king meets
a white doe, "beautifully sprinkled with blue

1 It is particularly difficult in the case of the Persian
Tales, because Le Sage "revised" the manuscripts.

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 23

and black spots; with rings of gold upon her
feet ; and upon her back a yellow satin, bordered
round with embroidery of silver." She disap-
pears into a fountain; the king, thinking her a
nymph in disguise, falls asleep to be awakened
by "a ravishing symphony" coming from "a
very magnificent palace all illuminated," which
has been raised by superhuman power. Later
he finds a melancholy lady in torn garments,
who says: "I am the daughter and the wife of
a king, and yet not what I say. I am a princess,
and yet not what I am." Her misfortunes
prove to be due to the machinations of a witch
who, Duessa-like, has assumed her form and
won away her husband. In the History of Two
Brothers, Genies [sic], Adis and Dahy, a tale in
some respects coarse and repulsive, there is a
curious description of an island where ideas of
beauty are topsyturvy ; the wrinkles and decrep-
itude of old age are adored and the loveliness of
youth despised — characteristics recalling the
Topsyturvy land of European story. In the
same tale the costume of the islanders seems
borrowed from the san benito. They wore
"long robes of cotton on which were painted
several figures of demons in red, green, and yel-

24 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

low, with flames and other odd conceits." In
The History of Malek and the Princess Schirine,
Malek, by flying in a magic chest, gains entrance
to the apartment of the princess and persuades
her and her father that he is the prophet Maho-
met and her destined husband. There are
touches of humour here, a rare quality in these
tales. "I had eat up all my provisions and
spent all my money. The prophet Mahomet
was reduced to as low a state of want as ever
man was that had asked alms." Throughout
the tale there is a spirit of mockery, of practical
joking, not unlike that of a Spanish story. One
cannot help surmising that Le Sage's collabora-
tion with Pe"tis de la Croix went further than
strictly editorial work. In fact, in view of the
resemblances to European legend noted above,
it is most probable that Pe*tis de la Croix him-
self, taking advantage of the wave of enthusi-
asm recently aroused by Galland's Mille et une
Nuit,1 treated his oriental manuscripts far more
freely even than Galland, added decorative in-
cidents from European sources, and invented the

1 Les Mitte et une Nuit [sic], Conies Arabes traduits
en Francois [sic] par M. Galland. A Paris, 1704-
3717.

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 25

title Mille et un Jour 1 in direct imitation of
Galland's title.

In general the Persian Tales resembles the
Arabian Nights in the mingling of magic and
reality, of strange enchantments and oriental
customs almost as strange ; in dramatic presenta-
tion of picturesque incident and background;
in lack of characterization and, with few excep-
tions, of structural unity. But the Persian
Tales is far more sentimental, more fantastic,
more brilliant in colour. Here the reader is in
a fairy-land of charming or grotesque surprises,
while in the Arabian Nights, despite the misty
clouds of enchantment, there is substantial
ground under foot. May not this be one reason
why the Arabian Nights has always been a greater
favourite in England than the Persian Tales;
and why, in France, the popularity of the Persian
Tales has equaled, if not surpassed, that of the
Arabian Nights?

The Turkish Tales, the third important col-
lection, was translated from French into Eng-
lish in 1708, and appeared also in a version called

1 Les Mille et un Jour [sic] Contes Persons traduits en
Francois [sic] par M. Petis de la Croix. A Paris, 1710-
1712.

26 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

The Persian and the Turkish Tales Compkat
[sic] (1714). 1 It is a version of the old oriental
story of Sendebar, best known to English stu-
dents in the Middle English form, The Seven
Sages of Rome. The frame-tale in this version is
briefly as follows : Queen Canzade's evil passion
for her stepson turns to hatred upon his rejec-
tion of her love and her scheme to murder the
king. The prince is bound to forty days' si-
lence for fear of a mysterious calamity predicted
by his tutor. The latter, meanwhile, to avoid
questions retires discreetly into a cave. Can-
zade persuades the king to decree the prince's
death; the forty viziers successively plead for
him by stories of wicked women and loyal
sons; the queen endeavours to win her way by
tales of evil viziers and murderous princes ; until
finally the tutor is unearthed, the prince justi-
fied, and the queen condemned in his stead.
The Tales are appropriately called by the Turks
" Malice of Women," for the queen's stories reveal
her malice and the vizier's tales defend the prince
more by attacking women in general, and the
queen in particular, than by praising him.
In this satirical spirit the Turkish Tales
1 Cf. App. B, I., Nos. 7 and 15 (6), pp. 270 and 273.

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 27

affords a marked contrast to the Persian Tales.
The two collections are similar in use of magic
and of oriental customs, lack of structural unity,
absence of characterization, and emphasis on
the story for the story's sake. The Turkish
Tales differs in that it contains no elaborate de-
scriptions. This absence of stage-setting, as it
were, focuses attention on the plot and throws
the characters into bolder relief. A few of the
tales, as a result, are admirable narratives. The
best is the most famous of the collection, The
Santon Barsisa, quoted by Steele in the Guar-
dian, No. 148, and in that form suggesting to
Lewis — according to his own statement — the
idea of The Monk.1 The story here is brief and
crude, but swift in movement and powerful in a
way not unlike early versions of the Faust saga.
The dialogues between the devil and the saint
are thoroughly dramatic; no mention has been

1 Cf . Archiv fur das Studium der neueren Sprachen und
Literature*., Vol. CXI. (n. s., XI.), pp. 106-121, " Studien
zu M. G. Lewis's Roman ' Ambrosio, or the Monk,' " by
Otto Ritter; pp. 316-323, "Die eigentliche Quelle von
Lewis's 'Monk,'" by Georg Herzfeld; Vol. CXIII.,
pp. 56-65, " Die angebliche Quelle von M. G. Lewis's
'Monk,'" by Otto Ritter; Vol. CXIV., p. 167, under
Klcine Mittcilungen, " Zu Archiv CXIII., 63 (Lewis's
' Monk ')," by Otto Ritter.

28 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

made of the devil at all, and the reader is as
utterly unprepared for his sudden stage-entrance
as is the saint himself. An evil idea arises in
the santon's mind and, quick as thought, "the
devil, taking this opportunity, whispered in his
ear thus: '0 santon, do not let slip such a for-
tunate minute.' ' The santon yields, commits
one crime after another, is detected, and con-
demned to be hanged. On the scaffold he hears
a whisper in his ear: "'0 santon, if you will
worship me, I will extricate you out of this
difficulty and transport you two thousand
leagues from here, into a country where you shall
be reverenced by men as much as you were before
this adventure.' — 'I am content/ says Barsisa;
'deliver me and I will worship thee.' 'Give
me first a sign of adoration,' replies the devil;
whereupon the santon bowed his head and said,
'I give myself to you.' The devil, then raising
his voice, said, '0 Barsisa, I am satisfied; I
have obtained what I desired'; and with these
words, spitting in his face, he disappeared, and
the wretched santon was hanged."

Of the other tales, six deserve mention. Two
were quoted in the Spectator: Chec Chehabeddin
and the Sultan of Egypt in No. 94; The Fable

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 29

of the Sultan Mahmoud and the Two Owls in No.
512. The third, the story of the King of Aad,1
has an interesting resemblance to an incident
in Gulliver's Travels. The fourth and fifth are
characteristic of the collection, The History of
the Brahman and the Young Fiquay, a Turkish
version of the Aladdin story, and the oriental
apologue of King Togrul-Bey. The sixth, The
History of the Prince of Carizme and the Princess
of Georgia, may be noted as exceptionally fan-
tastic, and as containing the song attributed
to John Hughes : —

" Eternal aretthe chains which here
The generous souls of lovers bind," etc.1

After the Arabian Nights, the Persian Tales,
and the Turkish Tales, the best imaginative ori-
ental tales are the English versions of the so-
called pseudo-translations. The first to appear in
English was The Travels and Adventures of the
Three Princes of Serendip * . . . (1722) from the

1 Cf. App. A, pp. 259-262.

2 The Persian words also are given in the 1708 edition
(App. B, I., No. 7, p. 270).

3 Cf. App. B, I., No. 20, p. 274. Cf. Horace Walpole's
coinage of the word "serendipity," meaning "accidental
sagacity"; Letters of Horace Walpole, edited by Mrs.

30 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

French of De Mailli [or Mailly], whose version
was in turn from the Italian Peregrinaggio ... by
Armeno (1557).1 The events of the story, in De
Mailli's rendering, are said to have occurred " in
the happy time when kings were philosophers
and sent each other important problems to solve,"
— a sentiment lacking in the Italian, and char-
acteristic of a French eighteenth-century ver-
sion. The frame-tale recounts the travels of
three "equally beautiful and gifted" princes,
who seek culture and win success in various en-
terprises. In the Emperor Behram's country,
their first adventure is the one probably imitated
by Voltaire in Zadig. They tell a camel-driver
that his lost camel is blind, lame, and laden with
honey, butter, etc., but that they have not seen
him. When accused of theft, they inform
the judge that their close observation of the
camel's footprints, the cropped herbage, etc.,
has led them to infer the truth. Another achieve-
ment is their recovery of the Emperor's lost mir-
ror of justice, which has the extraordinary prop-
erty of detecting false accusations . If a slanderer

Paget Toynbee in sixteen volumes. Oxford MCMIII.,
Vol. III., pp. 203, 204; Letter No. 382, to Horace Mann,
January 28, 1754.

1 Cf. App. B, II., No. 3, p. 295.

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 31

look into the mirror, his face turns black and can
be restored only by public confession and pen-
ance. Many of the stories are apparently based
on Italian novelle of shepherdesses, Venetian
ladies, clever goldsmiths, and other similar char-
acters, and are unoriental. There is one story
of metempsychosis, however, similar to the
oriental tale, Fadlallah and Zemroude, in the
Persian Tales. But "the general plan of the
Peregrinaggio is more inflexible and homogeneous
than is usual in oriental tales." 1 The English
version stands by itself in being perhaps the
only pseudo-translation which came by way
of eighteenth-century France from sixteenth-
century Italy.

One of the most facile and prolific of French
writers of pseudo-translations was Thomas
Simon Gueullette (1683-1766). Four of his
collections were translated into English under
the names: Chinese Tales, or the Wonderful
Adventures of the Mandarin Fum-Hoam . . .
(1725); Mogul Tales, or the Dreams of Men
Awake: being Stories Told to Divert the Sultanas

1 Die Reise der Sohne Giaffers aus dem Italienischen
des Christoforo Armeno ubersetzt durch Johann Wetzel,
1583, herausgegeben v. H. Fischer und J. Bolte, Tubingen,
1895, p. 178.

32 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

of Guzarat, for the Supposed Death of the Sultan
(1736); Tartarian Tales; or, a Thousand and
One Quarters of Hours (1759); and Peruvian
Tales Related in One Thousand and One Hours
by One of the Select Virgins of Cuzco, to the Inca
of Peru . . . (1764, Fourth (?) Edition).1 The
last named is a worthless collection, oriental or
rather pseudo-oriental in everything except locale
and interesting only as an example of the ultra-
fantastic, degenerate oriental tale. One bit of
unconscious humour rewards the reader; the
author gives local colour to the terrors of Peru
by mentioning "muskettas, reptiles, and other
insects."

Of the three other collections, the Chinese
Tales may serve as the type. The frame-tale
is as follows: The sultan of China in disguise
wins the love of the princess Gulchenraz, kills
the usurper of her kingdom, tests her love by
the suit of a mock-sultan, and is accepted by her
on condition that her Mahometan faith be un-
molested. She agrees to listen to the Mandarin
Fum-Hoam, who tells her tales to convert her
to belief in transmigration ; and the sultan prom-
ises that, if she remain unconverted, he will

1 Cf. App. B, I., No. 22, p. 275.

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 33

become a Mahometan. Fum-Hoam tells many
tales, and at the end reveals himself as her lost
brother, who is wise as Solomon, and who has
brought to pass all the events of the story. He
then transports them to his kingdom, Georgia,
and admits that there is no truth in the trans-
migration theory, and that he has told his tales
solely to make the sultan keep his promise
of embracing Mahometanism. The frame-tale
closes with the implication that they all lived
happily ever after. The oriental colouring is
very slight. Transmigration is mentioned only
to be ridiculed. Reference is made to the suttee,
to pilgrimages to Mecca, and to the fast of Rama-
dan according to the Koran. Descriptions of
emotion are absurd ; one hero dies of grief, with
lamentations "like the roarings of a lion."
The narratives are often grotesque, e.g. the
journey to the Country of Souls,1 where the soul
can be put into a bag to be brought back to the
land of the living and reembodied by placing the
bag at the mouth of the corpse. The author's
fancy runs riot as to the successive transmigra-
tions of Fum-Hoam, who assumes in tedious

1 Cf. Orlando Furioso, Canto XXXIV., Astolfo's
journey to the moon, where wits are kept.
D

34 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

succession numerous forms, such as those of a
dog, a maid, a flea, and a bat. There is surpris-
ingly little satire, considering the opportunities
for observing mankind possible to the ubiqui-
tous Fum-Hoam. In the use of magic, the
Chinese Tales follows conventional lines — the
elixir of life or water of youth, the secret of trans-
muting metals to gold, the mysterious words of
Solomon which command the genii; cabalistic
prayers, which reveal black marble staircases
leading to subterranean treasure-caves; and in-
cantations in the manner of Theocritus. Many
other incidents imply a knowledge of European
legend and literature. One story tells of Grecian
shepherds ; another of Kolao, the wild man, and
his Robinson Crusoe life; another recalls Pan-
dora; another, the fairy tale of brothers rewarded
for helping fairies in the form of animals. One
incident might easily be a masque of Neptune —
a venerable man rising from the sea in a chariot
of mother-of-pearl, drawn by sea-horses, and
accompanied by mermaids. The adventure of
the prince in the haunted tower of the forty
virgins serves as sequel to a story similar to the
Pied Piper of Hamelin. A dwarf agreed for a
certain sum to free the city of Ispahan from rats

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 35

by playing on tabor and pipe. When the people
refused payment, they were threatened with dire
punishments by the dwarf's mother, " a genie in
the shape of an old black woman above fifty
feet high . . . with a whip in her hand," unless
they brought at once forty of their most beau-
tiful daughters. To the sound of the genie's
leather trumpet, "these unhappy victims of
their father's perfidy" were led to the tower
and seen no more until rescued by the prince.
The Chinese Tales contains less moralizing than
the other pseudo-translations. There is one
reference to the happiness of a tranquil life away
from court, from lawsuits, and from women;
one moral drawn as to the ill results of educating
women: "I am, from my own experience, fully
satisfied that the care to govern her family
should be the only employ of a virtuous wife;
and that it is next to a miracle, if pride, or some
other more dangerous passion, make not a woman
neglect her duty, when she once comes to apply
herself to the study of learning, and affects to
surpass the rest of her sex." We find, also, the
poetical fancy common in Persian literature that
even the palace of the king is but an inn, for its
successive inhabitants are but travelers upon

36 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

earth toward the same common end, — death ; *
and the equally familiar figure in which life is
compared to a game of chess. "Some act the
kings, the queens, the knights, the fools, and
simple pawns. There is a vast difference be-
tween them, while they are in motion ; but when
once the game is over, and the chess-board shut,
they are all thrown promiscuously together into
the same box, without any sort of distinction —
all then become equal ; and there is nothing but
our good works and charity towards our neigh-
bours, that will give us the superiority."

Gueullette's two other collections, the Mogul
Tales and the Tartarian Tales, are similar in
plan and treatment. Extravagant in the use
of magic, fantastic in description and incident,
employing European legends freely and oriental
colouring very slightly, sometimes moralizing,
sometimes coarse, seldom satirical, imitating
the faults rather than the excellences of genuine
oriental translations, these narratives are fre-
quently entertaining, but possess little intrinsic
value.

One special point of interest in the Mogul
Tales must not be omitted, — the incident of the

1 Cf. Spectator, No. 289.

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 37

sinners with flaming hearts, — since this was
probably the source of the parallel passage in
Beckford's Vathek. It is worth remark as ex-
ternal evidence that the Mogul Tales is in the
catalogue of Beckford's library. The points
of similarity and the superiority of Vathek are
obvious, if the quotations from Vathek, pp. 62-
65 of this chapter, are compared with the fol-
lowing extract from the Mogul Tales (Weber's
Tales of the East, Edinburgh, 1812, Vol. III., p. 58
et seq.). Aboul-Assam tells how he saw "a flam-
beau . . . carried by a little man . . . enter-
ing a subterranean passage. . . . We went
down together . . . into the mountain; at
last we traversed a long alley of black marble;
but so finely polished, that it had the appearance
of a looking-glass ; ... we reached a large hall,
where we found three men standing mute, and
in postures of sorrow. They were looking
earnestly on a triangular table, whereon lay a
book, with clasps of gold; on its back was this
inscription: 'Let no man touch this divine
treatise that is not perfectly pure ' . . . I wish,
said I ... that this peace may continue always
among you. Peace is banished from these sad
places, replied the eldest of the three, with an

38 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

air of sternness. . . . We wait, said the second,
in this sepulcher, for the just judgment of God.
— You are then, continued I, great sinners. —
Alas ! cried the third, we are continually tor-
tured for our evil actions . . . they unbuttoned
their waistcoats, and through their skin, which
appeared like crystal, I saw their hearts com-
passed with fire, by which, though burnt with-
out ceasing, yet [they were] . . . never con-
sumed; I then was at no loss for the reason of
their looking so ghastly and affrighted." Aboul-
Assam is then shown paintings representing
their crimes, rebukes them in horror, is in turn
rebuked by a picture of his own past sins, and
condemned to blindness for seven years. Vathek
is also punished, but the genius of Beckford
chooses a more dramatic and awful penalty.

In connection with Vathek, the Adventures of
Abdalla, Son of Hanif ... by Jean Paul Bignon,
translated into English by William Hatchett
(1729), 1 is of even greater interest than the
Mogul Tales. It is similar in general charac-
ter to its predecessors. The frame-tale, which
recounts Abdalla's search for the fountain of
youth, includes all his adventures and the past
1 Cf. App. B, I., No. 23, pp. 275, 276.

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 39

history of all the people he meets, and is so be-
wilderingly entangled that the Arabian Nights,
by contrast, seems simplicity itself. The tales
are more or less interesting stories * of adventure
and love, and are melodramatic, humorous,
moralizing, and satirical. Magic abounds, Euro-
pean legends and previous oriental tales are
freely utilized, and great stress is laid upon the
"horrid," the grotesque, the fantastic. Given
these characteristics, it is easy to see how Abdalla
appealed to the author of Vathek. That it did
make a strong appeal is shown by Beckford's
numerous borrowings. In every instance he
improved upon his original. The author of
Abdalla describes rest in a delightful country-
place surrounded by "flowers of remarkable
beauty," " birds of every colour," and "very fine
trees." Beckford's similar description gives con-

1 One incident recalls Dr. Edward Everett Bale's
entertaining story, My Double and How He Undid Me:
A good fairy created for King Giamschid a double, " a
phantom, who ate with a very good appetite and who
pronounced at intervals, in the tone and voice of the
true Giamschid, a few sentences very much to the pur-
pose." (H. Weber's Tales of the East, 1812, Vol. III.,
p. 671.) The similarity is a mere coincidence. Dr. Hale
informs me that he was unacquainted with this story
when he wrote My Double.

40 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

crete images — fountains, roses, jessamines,
violets, nightingales, doves, orange trees, palms,
and pomegranates. Dilsenguin, the hero in
Abdalla, "precipitated himself into a subter-
ranean apartment," seeking "detestable vol-
umes" of magic. The phantoms seized Dilsen-
guin by the feet and threw him into the well,
head foremost. When he reached the hall of
Eblis, he found it an immense temple of black
and white marble. At the keystone of one of
the arches he saw " a globe of fire, which, some-
times obscure and sometimes brilliant, filled the
temple with unsteady flashes of light." The
globe opened and there descended from it a huge
old man in a yellow robe, holding a scepter of
gold. He "seated himself upon the throne.
It was the formidable Eblis. . . . His looks
were horrid, his beard and hair bristled. . . .
[He had] a hole in the place of a nose," etc.
When Dilsenguin thanked him for his magic
books, Eblis, " enraged that a mortal should break
silence in his temple," kicked him so violently
that he lost consciousness. Contrast the im-
pressive description of Vathek's reception by
"the formidable Eblis" enthroned upon the globe
of fire. "His person was that of a young man,

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 41

whose noble and regular features seemed to have
been tarnished by malignant vapours; in his
large eyes appeared both pride and despair; his
flowing hair retained some resemblance to that
of an angel of light ; in his hand, which thunder
had blasted, he swayed the iron scepter that
causes the monster Ouranabad, the Afrits, and
all the powers of the abyss to tremble; at his
presence the heart of the Caliph sunk within him,
and for the first time, he fell prostrate on his
face." Beckford's Eblis is a faint but not
wholly unworthy echo of Milton's Satan, while
Bignon's Eblis is merely the grotesque ogre of
the fairy tale.

The last pseudo-translation that need be
noticed is the New Arabian Nights (1792),
from the French of Dom Chavis and M. Cazotte.1
The book purported to be a continuation of the
Arabian Nights, translated from the Arabic.
Modern scholars believe that the "translators"
undoubtedly utilized Arabic manuscripts as a
basis, but made so many changes that the book
is to be regarded as a pseudo-translation. It
may be dismissed as a weak imitation of the
Arabian Nights, redeemed in part by two ad-
1 Cf. App. B, I., No. 81, p, 290.

42 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

mirable tales: The Robber Caliph and The His-
tory of Maugraby 1 the Magician. The latter
has additional interest in that it suggested to
Southey the germinal idea of Thalaba.2 Mau-
graby, the evil enchanter, half human, half
genie, carries away children to his magical
domains under Mt. Atlas, and by tortures and
caresses enslaves them for his master Zatanai
[Satan]. If obedient, they are taken to the
caverns under the sea adjoining the Dom Daniel
near Tunis, — the school of magic and the mag-
nificent court of Asmodeus, — where evil ma-
gicians assemble in the wane of the moon. The
hero of this tale is the captive prince Habed,
who after exciting adventures compasses the
destruction of Maugraby and the liberation of
his prisoners, including the princess of Egypt.
The story closes with the marriage of the prince

1 The writer of a recent review, in the New York Even-
ing Post, of Vol. IV., Lane's Arabian Nights, Bohn edition,
just issued, interprets the " African " magician of Alad-
din as the " Tunisian " magician, and continues : " That
Tunis was especially famous for magic does not seem to
be elsewhere recorded. Such was, and is, the reputa-
tion rather of Morocco and of Africa farther west in gen-
eral, and in this same tale the magician is also called a
Maghribi, strictly a Moroccan."

2 Cf. App. A, p. 263.

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 43

and the princess. The narrative is marred by
coarse incidents and a few long digressions, but
contains several interesting passages, e.g. the
introductory scenes between Maugraby, the
vizier, the buffoon,1 and the king; the descrip-
tions of the wiles of the magician; and the
account of Habed's life in the fairy palace. The
interest is always centered on the hero's terrible
task of fighting the powers of darkness, led by
Maugraby. The latter possesses no countenance
peculiar to himself, but changes even his fea-
tures according to the passion of the moment
and transfers his evil soul from one body to
another. "He takes every method to engage
the kings of the earth to part with their first-born
sons to him that they may become powerful
instruments in his hands; ... he prowls about
the houses of those that are discontented. If a
father ... be displeased with his son and hap-
pen to curse him, he seizes the child; if, on the
other hand, the son should curse his father, still
the child is made his prey. ... If a caravan
set out for Upper Egypt . . . through the
desart [sic], the magician mounts on the wind
schirak ... in order to destroy them. When
1 Cf . opening scenes of Vathek.

44 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

the unfortunate company are reduced to the last
extremity, he appears ... as a benefactor
... on condition that they shall surrender them-
selves soul and body to him, to Zatanai [Satan]
and the great Kokopilesobe [Lucifer]. The
caravan agreeing, presently arrives at his
retreat, and, instead of two or three hundred
beasts of burden, there are now above four hun-
dred; for all the merchants and other persons
are metamorphosed into brutes. . . . Though
he was handsome in his youth, his person is now
become a mass of deformity, as well as his mind.
His decrepitude is such as may be expected from
his great age, which exceeds a century and a half.
His human body is a mere chimera; he can,
however, assume every form he chooses,and noth-
ing discovers him but the sinister expression of
his eye." 1

The other tale, The Robber Caliph, is farcical
and amusing — very different from Maugraby.
Haroun Alraschid, tired of elaborate court festi-
vals, escapes to his beloved streets of Bagdad
in the disguise of an Arab robber-chief, " II Bon-
docani." His thirst for adventure is gratified
by the rescue of a white-handed beggar-woman,
1 Weber, op. cit., Vol. II., p. 290.

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 45

who proves to be the princess of Persia. She,
likewise, wanders disguised through the city, and
unwittingly rouses Haroun's jealousy of a young
officer, Yemalledin. The latter and the princess
are imprisoned. Again the disguised caliph goes
forth, finds a poor old woman with a marvelously
beautiful daughter, Zutulbe, and sends the
mother to order the cadi to marry Zutulbe and
1 ' II Bondocani . " The old woman's mystification ,
the cadi's haughty behaviour and his sud-
den obsequiousness at the name of "II Bondo-
cani" are amusing; and so are the sudden
preparations for the gorgeous wedding-feast and
the more sudden dispersal of clamouring neigh-
bours by the display of " II Bondocani 's " ring.
The caliph discovers from the old woman's talk
the innocence of her son Yemalledin, reveals his
identity, restores Yemalledin to honour, and
gives him the Princess of Persia. Of course all
live happily ever after. The dramatic effect
throughout is capital, for the reader is in the
secret and enjoys with Haroun the complication
and the resolution of the plot. There are many
admirable touches in dialogue, description, and
oriental setting. On the whole, the story de-
serves to rank with the true Arabian Nights.

46 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

Following these pseudo-translations, three
small groups of imaginative oriental fiction de-
serve brief notice : the heroic romances, the real-
istic tales, and the eclogues. Of little intrinsic
value, they are interesting chiefly as evidence of
the diffusion of the orientalizing tendency. The
first group includes reprints and imitations of a
few of the heroic romances of the previous cen-
tury. The Beautiful Turk (1720) is another
translation of the French romance by G. de Bre-
mond translated as Hattige, or the Amours of the
King of Tamaran . . ., a Novel (a roman a
clef concerning Charles II. and the Duchess of
Cleveland), published Amsterdam, 1680, and
also in Vol. I. (1679 or 1683?), of R. Bentley's
Modem Novels, London (1679- 1692).1 The
Bajazet of J. Regnauld de Segrais was reprinted
in 1725.2 Mrs. Aubin's Noble Slaves, or the
Lives and Adventures of Two Lords and Two
Ladies (1722 ?) 3 is Spanish in plot and char-
acter, but contains minor personages, — Chinese,
Persian, etc., — who recount their experiences.
In 1733 appeared a translation from the French

1 Cf. App. B, I., No. 17, p. 274.

2 Cf. App. B, I., No. 21, pp. 274, 275.
8 Cf. App. B, I., No. 19, p. 274.

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 47

of D'Orville : The Adventures of Prince Jakaya,
or the Triumph of Love over Ambition, being
Secret Memoirs of the Ottoman Court,1 a romantic
tale. Jakaya, the true heir to the Ottoman
sultanate, flees in disguise from his brother's
murderous wrath, has many adventures, mar-
ries for love, and renounces ambition. The story
is imaginative, but is too frequently moralistic
and didactic. Yet, with others of the same type,
it is interesting as constituting the last feeble
wave of the receding tide of seventeenth-century
heroic romances. It is true that these romances
were read far into the eighteenth century; wit-
ness Mrs. Lennox's satire, The Female Quixote,
and George Colman's Polly Honeycomb. But
by 1740 imitations had ceased to be written;
the wave had spent its force and ebbed
away in stories like The Adventures of Prince
Jakaya.

The second group referred to at the beginning
of the preceding paragraph, also of little intrinsic
value, is of even greater consequence as a touch-
stone of the times. The realistic oriental tales
connect the orientalizing tendency, if one may so
call it, with the more profound and widespread
1 Cf. App. B, I., No. 27, p. 277.

48 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

tendency of the age toward realism. Appro-
priately enough, the first great writer of realistic
fiction in the century, was also the first to
utilize — though very slightly — the oriental
material in a realistic tale. In The Farther Ad-
ventures of Robinson Crusoe (1719), 1 the hero
travels through China, where he meets man-
darins, sees porcelain houses, and witnesses
"incredible performances." In Muscovy he de-
stroys a village idol, escapes in safety, fights
Cossacks, etc. — incidents in the manner of
travelers' accounts. In 1755 a feeble imitation
of Robinson Crusoe appeared, with some resem-
blance to an oriental tale. It is best described
by the title : The Life and surprizing Adventures
of Friga Reveep, of Morlaix, France, who was
Sixteen years in an uninhabited Part of Africa
and how he met with a young Virgin who was
bannish'd and in what manner they liv'd together
and had two children, a Son and a Daughter, the
latter dying when she was six years of Age; to-
gether with their surprizing Deliverance to their
own Country again with a faithful Relation of all
that past during the Time that he was there.
Written in French by himself and translated into
1 Cf. App. B, I., No. 5 (6), p. 270.

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 49

English by Mr. Transmarine (1755).1 Four or
five other members of this realistic group, though
comparatively unimportant, are worth notice,
because they are possibly founded on tales
brought home from the East by English mer-
chants, and thus bear witness to the growing
interest of England in the Orient. In The His-
tory of Rodomond and the Beautiful Indian,2
an English merchant, saved from treacherous
natives by an East Indian girl, escapes with her
to England and marries her. The History of
Henrietta de Bellgrave2 is the story of a girl,
who, shipwrecked in the East Indies, escapes
from pirates, leads a Robinson Crusoe life, and is
finally married to a "Banyan." The Disin-
terested Nabob (1788) 3 is an anonymous "novel,
interspersed with genuine descriptions of India,
its Manners and Customs." The scene is laid
partly in India, and there is an unsuccessful
attempt at local colour. The story is in reality
a mediocre imitation of Sir Charles Grandison.

1 Cf. App. B, I., No. 48, p. 283. In the above-men-
tioned title, the original spelling is preserved.

1 These two are included in a frame-tale called
The Lady's Drawing-room (1744). App. B, I., No. 35,
p. 278.

8 Cf. App. B, L, No. 76, p. 289.

50 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

The Asiatic Princess, by Mrs. Pilkington (1800), *
is oriental only in so far as the heroine is the
Princess Merjee of Siam and references are
made to Eastern treatment of slaves and to the
suttee. The princess is intrusted to an English
lady and her husband to be educated by travel.
Her instructors moralize on the differences be-
tween oriental and English ways, and endeavour
to guide her by moral tales. Another realistic
story, The Female Captive, has far more life.
The entire title reads, The Female Captive, a
narrative of Facts which happened in Barbary
in the Year 1756, written by herself. London,
1769.2 It has many evidences of being a
true story. The heroine, engaged to an Eng-
lishman, sails for home from Minorca under the
care of a Mr. Crisp. Captured by Moors, she
passes for his sister, and later for his wife, to save
herself. After imprisonments and other hard-
ships, she is given an audience by the prince
of the country and thoughtlessly repeats un-
known words a French boy interpreter asks her
to say. They prove to be, "There is no God
but God, and Mahomet is his prophet," and she

1 Cf. App. B, I., No. 89, (a), p. 292.

2 Cf. App. B, I., No. 59, p. 286.

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 51

is told by the prince that her saying them has
made her a Moor, subject to death by fire if
she prove renegade.1 Through Mr. Crisp's aid
she escapes to England. There she finds her
fiance" unworthy, and is finally married to Mr.
Crisp. The narrative is by far the best of the
realistic group. There are frequent appeals to
Virtue and Fortitude in true eighteenth-century
style, but the story is well told. Little direct
description of the narrator is given, yet from
what she does and suffers and what others do for
her, it is easy to picture her as a fair English
girl, shy and brave — an attractive heroine.

The Fair Syrian, by Robert Bage (1787), 2 is
a long and tedious novel in letter-form, diversified
by the adventures of the English heroine among
the Turks, and extolling her devotion to Virtue.
The Anaconda, by "Monk" Lewis, in Romantic
Tales (1808) ,3 belongs in certain respects to this
group, being a realistic story of the adventures
of various English people and natives in the
East in their struggles with an anaconda. Be-
fore leaving these realistic tales, it may be well

1Cf. Voltaire's Travels of Scarmentado, p. 210, post.

a Cf. App. B, I., No. 75, p. 289.

3 Cf. App. B, I., No. 93, pp. 292, 293.

52 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

to mention The Unfortunate Princess, by Mrs.
Eliza Haywood (1741),1 a fantastic tale called
by the author "a veracious history," but bear-
ing every mark of invention. Extravagant in
describing magic storms and horrible monsters,
coarse, didactic, and bombastic, the story is
valuable only as exemplifying both the mor-
alizing and the fantastic tendencies under the
guise of realism.

The third group referred to above (p. 46) in-
cludes the oriental eclogues, of which the chief
writers were William Collins, Thomas Chatterton,
and John Scott.2 The four brief poems by Col-
lins published in 1742 as Persian Eclogues?
and afterward (1757) called Oriental Eclogues,
include : I. Selim, or the Shepherd's Moral, which
represents the shepherd Selim in "a valley near

1 Cf. App. B, I., No. 33, p. 278.

* Cf. App. B, I., No. 69, p. 288, Chilcot, Harriet: Ormar
and Zabria; and No. 64 (a), p. 287, Irwin, Eyles : Bedukah
and Eastern Eclogues.

3 " Written originally for the entertainment of the La-
dies of Tauris and now translated," a phrase omitted
from later editions. Cf. Dr. Johnson, Life of Collins
(Chalmers, English Poets. London, 1810, Vol. XIII.,
p. 193): "In his last illness ... he spoke with disap-
probation of his Oriental Eclogues, as not sufficiently
expressive of Asiatic manners, and called them his Irish
Eclogues." Cf. App. B, I., No. 34, p. 278.

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 53

Bagdat" calling the shepherdesses to practise
various virtues ; II. Hassan, or the Camel Driver,
being Hassan's lament over the dangers of the
desert; III. Abra, or the Georgian Sultana, a
poem praising the pastoral life of the beautiful
shepherdess who married the Sultan and brought
him back occasionally to the happy shepherd life
for a vacation from the cares of state; and IV.
Agib and Secander, or the Fugitives. These
eclogues bear to the later and better work of
Collins a relation similar to that borne by Tenny-
son's youthful experiments in versification to
the poems of his maturity. Collins's eclogues
are not remarkable as poetry, but they are su-
perior to Chatterton's or Scott's, and they possess
something of the delicate finish and the pensive
note characteristic of the author of The Ode to
Evening. Chatterton's African Eclogues * are
three in number: I. Narva and Mored (May,
1770), recounting the love of the priest Narva
for the beautiful Mored, and their tragic death ;
II. The Death of Nicou (June, 1770), who
avenged his sister and slew himself; and III.
Heccar and Gaira (printed 1784; written Janu-
ary, 1770), the vengeance wrought by Gaira for

1 Cf. App. B, I., No. 61, p. 286.

54 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

the enslaving of his family. These poems are
characterized by crude imaginative force and
incoherent, almost Ossianic, fervor. John
Scott's (1730-1783) Oriental Eclogues (1782) 1
(I. Zerad, or the Absent Lover, an Arabian
Eclogue; II. Serim, or the Artificial Famine, an
East-Indian Eclogue; and III. Li-po, or the
Good Governor, a Chinese Eclogue) are early
examples of the influence of the movement we
have called the new scholarly movement. The
author refers to the "elegant and judicious
essay" of the "learned and ingenious Mr.
Jones" [i.e. Sir William Jones]; and, like
Moore and Southey, though with less assimi-
lative power, draws copiously from numerous
orientalists. Hence Scott's use of oriental
material forms an interesting link between the
simple Johnsonian manner of orientalizing by
a few phrases — a manner exemplified in the
eclogues of Collins — and the elaborate orien-
talization in the verse of Southey and of Moore.2

1 Cf. App. B, I., No. 67, p. 287.

2 The only other poems that may be classed as im-
aginative oriental tales — and that only by stretching a
point — are The Indian Philosopher, by Isaac Watts,
and the fragment of an eclogue called An Indian Ode,
by William King. Cf. Chalmers's English Poets. London,
1810, Vol. XIII., p. 63, and Vol. IX., p. 302.

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 55

Two years after the death of Scott, in 1785,
appeared one of the most interesting of all the
imaginative oriental tales: Charoba, translated
from the French, and published by Clara Reeve
in The Progress of Romance.1 In addition to con-
siderable intrinsic value, Charoba deserves espe-
cial notice as the direct source of Lander's
poem, Gebir (1798). The story of Charoba is
briefly as follows : Gebirus, the fierce and gigan-
tic king of the Gadites, determines to marry
Charoba, queen of Egypt, and take possession of
her kingdom. His naive motive is the hope of
being cured of an illness by the favourable cli-
mate of that country. A prelude concerning
Charoba gives an account of her father Totis,
a cruel despot, who, like Balak, seeks to pro-
pitiate God's servant — in this case, Abraham.
Totis dies; Charoba, handsome, "ingenious,"
generous, and wise, is made queen, and receives
from Abraham a blessing, which distinctly fore-
shadows her victory over Gebirus, and enhances
the artistic effect : " Great God, give her subtilty
to deceive her enemies and to vanquish all those
who shall arise to do her harm and to strive
with her for her land." On the appearance of

1 Cf. App. B, I., No. 70, p. 288.

56 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

Gebirus, Charoba's nurse, a great enchantress,
persuades him by rich gifts and by Charoba's
promise to marry him when his task is done, to
build a city with the stones he has brought to
dam the Nile. He makes no progress, because
the nurse employs demons of the sea to tear
down the work each night. At last he learns
from a melancholy shepherd that every evening
a fair lady rises from the sea, overcomes the shep-
herd in wrestling, and takes away a sheep; the
flock is diminishing, and he is pining for love
of her. Gebirus in his stead overcomes the lady
and wins as price of her freedom the secret of
circumventing the destructive demons and of
getting treasure from a magic cave. Thus he
finishes his city. Charoba, desperate, by her
nurse's advice poisons his army, receives him with
royal honours, and kills him with a poisoned
robe.1 Three years later she dies from a ser-
pent's sting, and is buried in Gebirus 's city.

The scene of the death of Gebirus is dramatic.
The subtle nurse, throwing over his shoulders
the poisoned robe, sprinkled him with magic
water, and he fell at Charoba's feet. The atten-
dants raised him up and seated him on a throne.

1 Cf. Sophocles, Trachinice (Death of Hercules).

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 57

The nurse said to him: "'Is the king well to-
night?'— He replied — 'A mischief on your
coming hither ! — May you be treated by others
as you have treated me ! — this only grieves me,
that a man of strength and valour should be over-
come by the subtilty of a woman.' 'Is there
anything you would ask of me before you taste
of death?' said the queen — 'I would only
intreat,' said he, 'that the words I shall utter
may be engraven on one of the pillars of this
palace which I have built.' Then said Charoba,
'I give thee my promise that it shall be done;
and I also will cause to be engraven on another
pillar, "This is the fate of such men as would
compel queens to marry them, and kingdoms
to receive them for their kings." Tell us now
thy last words.'

"Then the king said — 'I, Gebirus the Meta-
phequian, the son of Gevirus, that have caused
marbles to be polished, — both the red and the
green stone to be wrought curiously; who was
possessed of gold, and jewels, and various treas-
ures; who have raised armies; built cities,
erected palaces : — who have cut my way
through mountains; have stopped rivers; and
done many great and wonderful actions : —

58 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

with all this my power and my strength, and my
valour and my riches, I have been circumvented
by the wiles of a woman; weak, impotent, and
deceitful ; who hath deprived me of my strength
and understanding ; and finally hath taken away
my life : — wherefore, whoever is desirous to be
great and to prosper; (though there is no cer-
tainty of long success in this world) — yet, let
him put no trust in a woman, but let him, at
all times, beware of the craft and subtilty of a
woman.' After saying these words, he fainted
away and they supposed him dead; but after
some time he revived again. Charoba com-
forted him and renewed her promise to him.
Being at the point of death, he said: 'Oh
Charoba ! — triumph not in my death ! — for
there shall come upon thee a day like unto this,
and the time is not very far distant. — Then thou
shalt reflect on the vicissitudes of fortune and
the certainty of death/ " 1

The other notable scene, the victory of Gebi-
rus over the sea-nymph, recalls the Siegfried-
Brunhilde story. The entire shepherd-episode,
the nightly destruction of the day's work, and
the incident of the poisoned robe, are like, classic
1 Cf. Iliad, XXII (Death of Hector).

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 59

legends. The strange demons of the sea, the
spell-bound statues, the enchanted cave, remind
one of many oriental tales. Magic in Charoba
is used with considerable skill, and is made sub-
sidiary to, and symbolic of, human subtlety.
It is the cunning of Charoba's nurse, more than
her witchcraft, that wins the final victory,
and both kinds of skill typify the desperate re-
sistance of Charoba's will to the determination of
Gebirus. But the characterization is faint, as
in other oriental tales; the characters are sug-
gested rather than wrought out. As a whole,
Charoba has a rude, tragic force far superior to
that of the average oriental tale. No wonder
it kindled the imagination of Landor.

The poet's use of the material he found in
Charoba is characteristic of his peculiar genius.
He has kept the main features : the determined
wooing of the princess by Gebir, the building and
destruction of his city, the shepherd-episode,
and the manner of Gebir's death. He has omitted
the prelude concerning Totis and Abraham, and
the sequel concerning Charoba's death. The
poem closes with the death of Gebir, consistently
with Lander's theme, which is not The History
of Charoba, but Gebir. For the same reason

60 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

throughout the poem he has heightened the
character of Gebir into an heroic figure of almost
epic proportions. The Gebirus of the History,
a fierce and rude giant, who covets Egypt for
selfish reasons, gives place to a patriotic hero,
who invades Egypt in revenge for ancestral
wrongs, ambitious, brave, full of pity for his
brother Tamar and of love for Charoba, devout
and reverent to the gods, oppressed by impending
fate, yet undaunted. It is the figure of the tra-
ditional epic hero. To throw it into bolder relief,
Landor has changed Charoba from the proud
queen to a love-sick girl, whose fear and pride
keep her from avowing her passion for Gebir.
Her silence causes Gebir's death, for her nurse
Dalica, inferring that she does not love him,
proceeds, unknown to Charoba, to compass his
death. Dalica's use of magic gives Landor the
opportunity of inserting one of his most striking
passages, describing her visit to the ruined city
and incantations over the poisoned robe. The
magic in Gebir is no longer the primitive enchant-
ment of The History of Charoba. The latter
recalls Biblical and oriental stories, such as the
Witch of Endor or the Arabian Nights; but the
former is rather the magic of classical legend, —

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 61

incantations like those in Theocritus and Homer.
The descent into the subterranean treasure-
cave in Charoba is replaced by the journey of
Gebir to Hades, where he is taught the futility
of ambition and the certainty of punishment for
evil-doers and of reward for the righteous after
death. The shepherd-episode is developed into
a story by itself after the manner of Ovid, with
descriptions of the nymph, the woods, the sea-
shore, the shepherd, and the wrestling-match.
In such ways the poem assumes an entirely dif-
ferent aspect from that of the History. It has
lost the crude and primitive simplicity of the con-
flict between the wills of Charoba and of Gebirus,
but it has gained in the heroic proportions of
the character of Gebir, in remarkable descriptive
passages, and in blank verse of great, though
uneven, beauty.

Of even greater significance than Charoba is the
History of the Caliph Vathek,1 the bizarre master-
piece of William Beckford, which holds among
all the oriental tales of the century a unique

'In English, 1786; in French, 1787. It had been
written between January, 1782, and January, 1783, in
French, by Beckford. Cf. App. B, I., No. 73 (a), p. 288;
and Vathek, edited by Richard Garnett. London, 1893,
Introduction.

62 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

and deservedly high place. It is indeed almost
the only modern oriental story "which might
appear without disadvantage in the Arabian
Nights, with Aladdin on its right hand and Ali
Baba on its left." 1 Although not a great book,
it is entitled to live chiefly for the sake of one
remarkable scene — the catastrophe in the Hall
of Eblis — in which the author, having laid
aside the mockery, the coarseness, and the flip-
pancy that reduce the first part of the book to the
level of a mere jeu d'esprit, shows himself capable
of conceiving and depicting an impressive catas-
trophe. From the moment when Vathek and
Nouronihar approach the dark mountains guard-
ing the infernal regions until they meet their
doom, the note of horror is sustained. "A
deathlike stillness reigned over the mountain
and through the air ; the moon dilated on a vast
platform the shade of the lofty columns which
reached from the terrace almost to the clouds;
the gloomy watch-towers were veiled by no
roof, and their capitals, of an architecture un-
known in the records of the earth, served as an
asylum for the birds of darkness, which, alarmed
at the approach of such visitants, fled away
1 Garnett, op. cit., Introduction, p. xxvii.

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 63

croaking." They proceeded, and, "ascending
the steps of a vast staircase, reached the terrace,
which was flagged with squares of marble, and
resembled a smooth expanse of water, upon
whose surface not a leaf ever dared to vegetate ;
on the right rose the watch-towers, ranged before
the ruins of an immense palace." On the walls
Vathek beheld an Arabic inscription permitting
him to enter the subterranean abode of Eblis.
"He had scarcely read these words before the
mountain against which the terrace was reared,
trembled, and the watch-towers were ready to
topple headlong upon them; the rock yawned,
and disclosed within it a staircase of polished
marble that seemed to approach the abyss;
upon each stair were planted two large torches,
like those Nouronihar had seen in her vision,
the camphorated vapour ascending from which
gathered into a cloud under the hollow of the
vault." They descended to be welcomed by
the malignant Giaour who had first tempted
Vathek, and to be led into a magnificent hall ra-
diant with light and fragrant with subtle odours,
but containing "a vast multitude incessantly
passing, who severally kept their right hands on
their hearts, " as if in agony. Refusing to explain

64 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

this ominous mystery, the guide conducted
them into the presence of "the formidable
Eblis," the fallen archangel enthroned on a globe
of fire.1 He received them and promised them
treasures and talismans. But when they eagerly
followed the evil Giaour to an inner treasure-
chamber, they heard from "the great Soliman"
himself an account of his ambitions, his evil
deeds, and his terrible punishment. He " raised
his hands toward Heaven . . . and the Caliph
discerned through his bosom, which was trans-
parent as crystal, his heart enveloped in flames."
To Vathek's cry of terror the malicious Giaour
replied : " ' Know, miserable prince ! thou art
now in the abode of vengeance and despair : thy
heart also will be kindled, like those of the other
votaries of Eblis. A few days are allotted to thee
previous to this fatal period; employ them as

1 Cf . Lady Burton's version of Sir Richard Burton's
Arabian Nights, edited by J. H. McCarthy (London,
1886), n., p. 11, which, following the Koran and the
Talmud, calls Iblis (Eblis) a rebellious angel who refused
to worship Adam, caused Adam and Eve to lose Para-
dise, and still betrays mankind.

Cf. E. W. Lane, Arabian Society in the Middle Ages,
Studies in the Arabian Nights, edited by S. Lane-Poole,
London, 1883, who, on p. 32, says, " Iblees is represented
as saying, ' Thou hast created me of fire and hast created
him [Adam] of earth.' Kur. VII. and XXXVIII., 77."

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 65

thou wilt ; recline on these heaps of gold ; com-
mand the Infernal Potentates, ... no barrier
shall be shut against thee ; as for me, I have ful-
filled my mission: I now leave thee to thyself.'
At these words he vanished." When the inevi-
table hour came, their hearts " immediately took
fire, and they at once lost the most precious of
the gifts of Heaven — Hope." Their mutual
passion turned into hate and they "plunged
themselves into the accursed multitude, there
to wander in an eternity of unabating anguish."
The rest of the book does not begin to equal
the catastrophe. Perhaps, indeed, one should
not take it too seriously, but regard it rather as
an intentionally absurd and brilliant extrava-
ganza. Beckford seems to have begun merely
with the idea of writing a clever oriental tale
in the lighter manner of Voltaire and Count
Hamilton; but, as he went on improvising one
fantastic scene after another, the concept of
the Hall of Eblis fired his imagination and roused
his real genius. The plot follows the caprice of
the narrator in turning aside for grotesque
episodes, but is clear in its main course. It
begins with Vathek's impious building of a mar-
velously high tower from whence he studies

66 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

astrology. Suddenly "a hidious Giaour" ap-
pears at court and intensifies the Caliph's evil
ambition for power and riches at any cost.
Vathek abjures his Mahometan faith, murders,
or at least attempts to murder, fifty innocent
children after winning their confidence; with
the aid of his mother, a horrible sorceress, kills
many of his faithful subjects; insults holy der-
vishes ; and finally violates the sacred hospitality
of the Emir Fakreddin by seducing his daugh-
ter Nouronihar. Her ambition strengthens that
of Vathek, and together they go on to their in-
evitable fate. Throughout the story premoni-
tions, ominous hints of impending disaster, are
skilfully used to prepare for the tragic outcome.
Charming scenes of quiet beauty — serene sun-
sets, children playing with butterflies and flow-
ers, nightingales singing among the roses —
are almost invariably followed by some sudden
horror: an eclipse, streaks of blood across the
blue sky, a vast black chasm, and other terrifying
portents. The whole book gives the impression
of an extraordinary dream. On one occasion
Nouronihar, led by a strange globe of fire, fol-
lowed through the darkness. "She stopped a
second time, the sound of waterfalls mingling

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 67

their murmurs, the hollow rustlings amongst the
palm-branches, and the funereal screams of the
birds from their rifted trunks, all conspired to
fill her with terror; she imagined every moment
that she trod on some venomous reptile; all
the stories of malignant Dives and dismal
Goules thronged into her memory; but her
curiosity was, notwithstanding, stronger than
her fears." Such passages reveal the kinship of
Vathek with The Mysteries of Udolpho and other
"tales of terror." An interesting distinction is
noticeable between the kind of horror present
here and that in tales like the Arabian Nights.
In the latter it is more objective and lacks the
psychological, uncanny quality found in Vathek
and the others. Vathek is, however, a thor-
oughly oriental tale of terror. The author
handles his rich store of oriental allusions,
names, phrases, and imagery, so easily that one
would hardly realize how great the abundance is,
if one were not confronted with the elaborate
annotations by the first editor, Henley. The
exotic brilliance of the various scenes is enhanced
by references to the angels Munkir and Nekir,
who guard the bridge of death; to incantations
and prayers; to the blue butterflies of Cash-

68 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

mere; the loves of Megnoun and Leileh; cheeks
the colour of the blossom of the pomegranate,
etc. Another element of charm in Vathek is
the style, admirably clear and forcible, though
occasionally grandiose. Written by Beckford
originally in French, the book retains in the Eng-
lish version something of the French manner.
Always lucid, sometimes oratorical, frequently
crisp and witty, the style recalls that of Count
Hamilton and of Voltaire. Beckford follows
his French prototypes, also, in his spirit of mock-
ery and sarcasm, his fitful humour, and inten-
tional extravagance. When Vathek was angry
"one of his eyes became so terrible, that no per-
son could bear to behold it, and the wretch upon
whom it was fixed instantly fell backward and
sometimes expired. For fear, however, of de-
populating his domains and making his palace
desolate, he but rarely gave way to his anger."
Vathek "wished to know everything, even
sciences that did not exist." In one of the most
grotesque scenes the Caliph and all his court were
bewitched into kicking the Giaour, who had rolled
himself up into a ball, until he disappeared into
a chasm.
But Beckford's mockery has frequently a re-

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 69

pulsive quality; it is brutal as well as cynical,
and usually dwells with repellent emphasis on
things that appeal to the senses. His brief
and brilliant descriptions of sensuous beauty -
colour, form, fragrance, melody — are also too
frequently tinged with sensuality. This does not
preclude, however, the moralizing tendency; in
fact, the two propensities are often coexistent in
the oriental tales, as they are in other forms of
literature. Besides repulsive mockery and sen-
suality the most serious defect in Vathek is one
we have noticed as distinctive of the oriental
fiction under discussion, i.e. lack of characteriza-
tion. The hero himself is a mere bundle of
attributes, self-indulgent, voluptuous, cruel, and
ambitious, not a living individual. Hence
even the impressive catastrophe lacks vitality
and fails to rouse either the tragic terror or the
tragic pity.

Vathek has been called a sporadic and isolated
phenomenon in eighteenth-century fiction. In
one sense that is true; there was before Vathek
no book just like it, and there has been none
since. Yet it is far more closely connected with
its predecessors and successors than has been
generally acknowledged. We have already

70 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

pointed out the obligations of Beckford to the
Mogul Tales and the Adventures of Abdalla and
suggested his indebtedness to Hamilton and
Voltaire. The Arabian Nights was an obvious
source of inspiration. The moralistic tales of Dr.
Johnson and of Hawkesworth, in which the hero is
punished for evil deeds, in all probability gave
suggestions to Beckford. In the scene of the Hall
of Eblis, Vathek is unique, and in a certain brill-
iance of execution the book has few equals. Yet
far from being sporadic or abnormal, it is rather
an epitome of many characteristic features of
the oriental tale: fantastic in plot and brilliant
in colouring like the Arabian Nights; weak in
characterization, marred by sensuality, and gro-
tesque in incident like many oriental tales;
witty and satirical like some of the fiction of Vol-
taire and Hamilton ; and tinged with the moraliz-
ing spirit seen in Dr. Johnson's tales. As a
"tale of terror" it exemplifies another contem-
porary tendency of English fiction. The wealth
of oriental allusion drawn from books reflects
one more contemporaneous movement, the re-
vival of interest in the East by scholars like Sir
William Jones, and in so far foreshadows the
similar use of similar material by Moore, Southey,

THE IMAGINATIVE GROUP 71

and Byron. To Byron,1 moreover, as to lesser
writers like Barry Cornwall,2 Vathek was a
direct source of inspiration.3 For all these rea-
sons the book is especially interesting to students
of the literary history of the times.4

Half-way between the imaginative oriental
tales and the moralistic is a small group includ-
ing such stories as Amorassan, or the Spirit of
the Frozen Ocean,5 and The History of Abdalla
and Zoraide, or Filial and Paternal Love. The
former is one of the Romantic Tales of M. G.
Lewis (1808), and is in part a close translation
from Der Faust der Morgenldnder by F. M.
Klinger and in part original with Lewis. It is
a heavy and uninteresting story concerning a
caliph, his brother, good and bad viziers, genii,
and fishermen. The spirit of the frozen ocean
comes to the good vizier Amorassan " to dispel

1 Cf. App. A., pp. 258, 259. * Cf. pp. 251, 252, post.

3 Cf . also the two voices overheard by Nouronihar with
The Ancient Mariner and Tennyson, The Two Voices.

4 Beckford also wrote a short oriental tale, Al Raoui,
nominally "translated from the Arabic" but probably
composed by Beckford, 1783, and first printed 1799.
It is a fanciful and rather pleasing romantic tale and
may be found in Cyrus Redding, Memoirs of William
Beckford. London, 1859, Vol. I., pp. 213-226.

1 Cf. App. B, I., No. 93, pp. 292, 293.

72 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

illusions," and shows him so much of the truth
about mankind that he is handicapped in all his
actions and exiled. He attains happiness only
after dismissing the uncomfortable monitor.
The moral is explicit : Do not endeavour to dis- .
pel illusions, "let benevolence and reason guide ,
you: beyond that all is Destiny." There is a
slight attempt at oriental colouring and at
fanciful descriptions, but the tale is of little
value. The History of Abdalla and Zoraide *
(1750?) is recommended on the title-page as
" well worthy the perusal of every tender parent
and dutiful child"; and, as might be inferred,
is a highly moral effort. It is interesting chiefly
in that it is the possible source of a tale used by
Goldsmith to embellish The Citizen of the World,
and that it may, with Amorassan, be taken as a
type of the imaginative oriental tale so far re-
moved from purely imaginative fiction like the
Arabian Nights, the Persian Tales, or Charoba,
as to be almost moralistic.

1 Based on a story in Lyttel ton's Persian Letters. Cf.
pp. 180, n. 1, and 185, post. Goldsmith may have drawn
directly from Lyttelton, or from this more recent (1750?)
version. Cf. also App. B, I., No. 41, p. 281.

CHAPTER II

THE MORALISTIC GROUP

IF among the imaginative tales there are some
that approach the moralistic, on the other hand
there are among the moralistic tales at least
three thoroughly imaginative. Two are transla-
tions of conies by Marmontel : The Watermen of
Besons and Friendship put to the Test; the third is
Thomas ParnelPs poem, The Hermit. Marmontel's
two tales share the characteristics of his Contes
Moraux in general, "light, elegant, and grace-
ful beyond anything to which I can compare
them in English : their form is exquisite, and they
are sometimes imagined with a fineness, a poetic
subtlety, that is truly delicious. If the reader
can fancy the humor of some of the stories in
the Spectator turned wit, their grace indefinitely
enhanced, their not very keen perception of the
delicate and the indelicate indefinitely blunted,
their characterization sharpened almost to an
edge of cynicism at times, he will have something
73

74 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

like an image of the Moral Tales in his mind." *
In fact, as Mr. Howells suggests in the same es-
say, "The Moral Tales of Marmontel are moral,
as the Exemplary Novels of Cervantes are exem-
plary; the adjectives are used in an old literary
sense, and do not quite promise the spiritual
edification of the reader, or if they promise it,
do not fulfil the promise . . . they are not such
reading as we might now put into young people's
hands without fear of offending their modesty,
but they must have seemed miracles of purity
in their time, and they certainly take the side of
virtue, of common sense, and of nature, when-
ever there is a question of these in the plot."
Marmontel himself says that he has endeavoured
"de rendre la vertu aimable"; and he adds:
"Enfin j'ai tache partout de peindre ou les
mceurs de la societe, ou les sentiments de la na-
ture; et c'est ce qui m'a fait donner a ce Recueil
le titre de Contes Moraux." 2

Clearly, then, Marmontel stands half-way be-
tween purely imaginative writers and weightier

1 Marmontel, J. F., Memoirs (Boston, 1878). Intro-
ductory essay by W. D. Howells, p. 25.

2 Preface to Contes Moraux in (Euvres, Paris, 1818,
Vol. III., p. xiv.

THE MORALISTIC GROUP 75

moralists like Dr. Johnson, who paraphrased
Horace : —

" Garrit aniles
Ex re fabellas."

-Sat., II., VI., 76.

"The cheerful sage, when solemn dictates fail,
Conceals the moral counsel in a tale." '

The Watermen of Besons 2 is a story of multi-
farious adventures. The beautiful and virtuous
heroine, a young French girl, is slave successively
to a sultan, a prince, an old Cypriote, and a
Knight of Malta; preserves both life and honour;
and is ultimately reunited to her faithful lover
Andre", the Waterman of Besons. He, mean-
while, has been hither and yon in the Orient,
as prisoner, vizier, and cook, escaping from one
farcical predicament after another. The scenes
change from France to Persia, India, and Syria.
The oriental setting is picturesque, if slight, and
assists in emphasizing the virtue and piety of the
heroine and in exalting the simple country life
of the boatman and his family in contrast to the
luxury and vain pleasures of the sultan's court.
The story is cleverly told from introduction to

1 Rambler, No. 65.

2 Cf. App. B, L, No. 54 (c), p. 285.

76 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

close ; and, except for some ostentatious moraliz-
ing and a few questionable incidents, is thor-
oughly attractive. In Friendship put to the
Test,1 there is more moralizing and less art. It
is a commonplace tale of the self-sacrifice of a
youth who relinquishes his bride to his friend
on discovering their mutual love. The heroine
is a young East Indian, daughter to a pious
Brahmin who worships Vishnu by the sacred
Ganges. The author endeavours to give addi-
tional local colour by referring to "the custom
of flattering a widow before she is burned." He
satirizes European bigotry by describing the
Brahmin's tolerance toward other creeds;
makes one of his oriental personages criticize
European etiquette in the manner of the Lettres
Persanes; and praises simplicity and the in-
genuous emotions of nature quite after the
fashion of Rousseau.2

Marmontel's tales have been praised by no
less a critic than Ruskin as being "exquisitely

1 Cf. App. B, I., No. 54 (6), pp. 284, 285.

2 Hugh Kelly's The Romance of an Hour, an after-
piece in two acts, was performed first, 1774. Two editions
were printed. The plot was borrowed |rom Marmontel's
tale, L'Amiti6 a I'Epreuve. [Gordon Goodwin in Dic-
tionary of National Biography, article "Hugh Kelly".]

THE MORALISTIC GROUP 77

finished." With them, so far as careful struc-
ture and polished style are concerned, The
Hermit l of Thomas Parnell may not unreasonably
be classed. The poem is so well-known that only
a brief comment is necessary here. It is a good
example of the beauty and force given to an ex-
ceedingly simple narrative by the power of style.
The tale was not original with Parnell, but was
an inheritance from the earlier stores of oriental
fiction given to Europe by the East during the
Middle Ages. Pope writes: "The poem is very
good." The story was written originally in Span-
ish [whence probably Howell had translated it
into prose, and inserted it in one of his letters]." 3
Gaston Paris mentions the same story, L'ange
et I'Ermite among the contes devots of the Middle
Ages, and says it is " juif sans doute d'origine." 8
Wilhelm Seele4 enumerates various versions and

1 Cf. App. B, I., No. 18, p. 274.

1 Spence's Anecdotes, Observations, and Characters of
Books and Men, a Selection, edited by John Underbill.
London [n. d.], p. 168.

8 La literature franfaise au moyen age. Paris, 1905,
p. 242.

4 Voltaire's Roman Zadig ou la Destinee, Eine Quel-
len-forschung . . . von Wilhelm Seele . . . Leipzig,
Reudnitz, 1891. Cf. also G. A. Aitken's Introduction
to Parnell's Poems, Aldine Edition. London, 1894, and

78 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

mentions that of Parnell as one of the accepted
sources of Zadig.

The opening lines of ParnelPs poem describ-
ing the peaceful life of the hermit are character-
istic : —

" Far in a wild, unknown to public view,
From youth to age a reverend hermit grew ;
The moss his bed, the cave his humble cell ;
His food the fruits, his drink the crystal well :
Remote from man, with God he pass'd the days,
Prayer all his business, all his pleasure praise."

A doubt of the wisdom and power of Providence
impels him to go out into the world to observe
the ways of God with men. A beautiful youth
becomes his companion and startles him by
committing strange crimes culminating in ap-
parently wanton murder. The hermit, in anger,
begins to rebuke the youth : —

" ' Detested wretch ! ' — but scarce his speech began,
When the strange partner seem'd no longer man :
His youthful face grew more serenely sweet ;
His robe turn'd white, and flow'd upon his feet;
Fair rounds of radiant points invest his hair ;
Celestial odours breathe through purpled air ;

Rev. John Mitford's Life of Parnell (p. 61 n.), prefixed
to The Poetical Works of Thomas Parnell. London,
1852.

THE MORALISTIC GROUP 79

And wings, whose colours glitter'd on the Day,
Wide at his back their gradual plumes display.
The form ethereal bursts upon his sight,
And moves in all the majesty of light."

The angel explains each apparent crime as in
reality a deed of benevolence ; the hermit learns
to trust the mysterious ways of Providence and
returns in peace to his cell. The poem has been
called Parnell's masterpiece; and is, indeed, an
admirable example of the conte moral in verse.

We suggested, above, two meanings of the
word " moral " : one, that of Marmontel, referring
chiefly to manners ; the other, that of Dr. John-
son, emphasizing conduct. It is the latter mean-
ing that best characterizes the numerous moral
oriental tales in eighteenth-century England —
the tales which we designate as "moralistic."

Even in the hands of Addison and Steele the
oriental tale was speedily utilized to inculcate
right living and was made into a story "with a
purpose," — in a word, became moralistic.
The avowed aim of the Spectator and the Taller
was to reconcile wit and morality, to entertain
and to preach, to hold the mirror of kindly
ridicule up to society, to smile away the follies
or vices of the world, and to present serene, tern-

80 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

perate, and beautiful ideals of thought and of
conduct. Hence, even the fiction that frequently
constitutes a vital part of the essays is permeated
with the same spirit. This holds true of the
character-sketches of Addison's real and im-
aginary correspondents and acquaintances, in-
cluding even Sir Roger himself. It is true, also,
of the frequent allegorical visions and dreams,
of the numerous classical stories, and of the occa-
sional oriental tales. To these various forms of
fiction Addison turned, "rambling," as he says,
" into several stories, fetching one to my present
purpose." Attracted as the great essayists
were by the touch of extravagance, the strange
dress and colouring, the unfamiliar nomenclature
and oriental fancies in these tales, they felt con-
strained, nevertheless, to apologize for such un-
classical material and to justify their use of it.
In the Spectator, No. 512, on the fable as the best
form of giving advice, Addison tells the entertain-
ing story of the Sultan Mahmoud and the vizier
who pretended to understand birds' conversation,
and introduces it by saying : " [There is] a pretty
instance of this nature in a Turkish Tale, which
I do not like the worse for that little oriental ex-
travagance which is mixed with it." "The vir-

THE MORALISTIC GROUP 81

tue of complaisance in friendly intercourse" is
" very prettily illustrated by a little wild Arabian
tale," the story of Shacabac and the Barme-
cide's Feast.1

The story of the Santon Barsisa 2 is praised by
Steele for suggesting serious reflections and an
obvious Christian moral. Alnaschar from the
Arabian Nights is used to conclude an essay
upon the transitoriness of human life and the
vain hope of worldly ambitions. Addison says,
"What I have here said may serve as a moral
to an Arabian fable which I find translated into
French by Monsieur Galland [and which is
marked by] a wild but natural simplicity." 3
In the story of the Persian Emperor's Riddle,4
the question, "What is the tree that has three
hundred and sixty-five leaves, black and white ?"
is one of the riddles in the story of the Princess
of China (Persian Tales'). The same answer is
given, "A year," but Addison affixes the reflec-
tion that the leaves represent the king's acts,
which look white to his friends and black to his
enemies. The "Persian story" of the just sul-

1 Guardian, No. 162. » Spectator, No. 535.

2 Ibid., No. 148, cf. pp. 27, 28, ante. * Freeholder, No. 17.

82 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

tan, who executed a culprit in the dark, though
he knew that it might be his son, concludes an
essay on justice.1 The riddle-like acts of the ,
sultan and his final explanation seem charac-
teristically oriental.

Two tales are apparently original with Addi-
son : the Story of Helim and Abdallah 2 and the
Story of Hilpa, Harpath, and Shalum.3 The for-
mer Addison says he found " lately translated out
of an Arabian manuscript." It has, he thinks,
"very much the turn of an oriental tale; . . .
never before printed; . . . [and doubtless will
be] highly acceptable to the reader." From
such an introduction the reader naturally infers
that Addison invented the tale. The character
of the story confirms this inference. Helim, the
great physician, educates Ibrahim and Abdallah,
sons to the tyrant Alnareschin, who has killed
thirty-five wives and twenty sons. Abdallah and
Balsora, the daughter of Helim, fall in love ; the
king covets Balsora; Helim gives her a sleeping
potion; and she wakes in a tomb with Ab-
dallah.4 They escape past the guards in the

1 Guardian, No. 99. Cf. The Persian Moonshee, Pt. II.,
Story 5, translated by Francis Gladwin, Calcutta and
London, 1801, p. 3. 3 Spectator, Nos. 584, 585.

2 Guardian, No. 167. * Cf . Romeo and Juliet.

THE MORALISTIC GROUP 83

guise of spirits and live happily in a beautiful
retreat on a mountain. After the tyrant's
death Helim reunites Ibrahim and Abdallah,
and ultimately Abdallah's son succeeds Ibra-
him. For oriental colouring Addison refers
to the seal of Solomon, Persia, Mahomet, etc.
His characters are the commonplace types:
the tyrant, the wise physician, the beautiful
girl, and others. He employs fanciful touches in
describing the black marble palace with its hun-
dred ebony doors guarded by negroes and its five
thousand lamps; an,d also in recounting the
lovers' escape by moonlight as spirits in white
and azure silk robes. No direct moral is drawn,
but virtue is rewarded and vice thwarted.
The other moral oriental tale by Addison is
called by him "an antediluvian noveTT^ the
Story of Hilpa, Harpath, and Shalum. He pre-
tends to have found it in Chinese records,
"the only antediluvian billet-doux in existence,"
and attempts to give verisimilitude by localizing
it in places with fictitious names that have an
oriental sound, and by using flowery language.
A humorous effect of mock antiquity is ob-
tained by exaggerating the age of the characters,
1 Spectator, No. 583.

84 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

— Hilpa, for instance, is a beautiful girl of
seventy, — and a touch of satire, by implying
that only an antediluvian woman would marry
for money. The feeble characterization — if
characterization it can be called — of the haughty
and contemptuous Harpath and the good and
gentle Shalum forecasts the later efforts of
Johnson and Hawkesworth. Although the tale
contains no explicit moral, it is used to illustrate
a "kind of moral virtue" — the planting of
trees. Antediluvians had an advantage over us
in that they outlived the trees they planted.
The lack of direct moralizing in these two original
tales is unusual: at least half the oriental tales
quoted or adapted in the Addisonian periodicals
enunciate an express moral lesson. The moral-
ity, like the philosophy, is not distinctly oriental
in character. . Industry and economy, health
and cleanliness, prudence and justice, kindly
"complaisance," the art of giving advice and
seeking instruction, serenity in the face of calumny
and death, — it is the Addisonian code of virtues
in oriental guise.

In thus utilizing the oriental tale for moralistic
purposes and — as we shall see later1 — for
1 Chap. III.

THE MORALISTIC GROUP 85

philosophic ends also, Addison gave the prelude
and the direction to two distinct tendencies of
the entire period.1 The strength of the moraliz-
ing proclivity may be illustrated from the trans-
lation of the imaginative Mogul Tales of Gueul-
lette. On the title-page of the edition of 1736,
the anonymous English translator quotes: —

"In pleasing Tales, the artful Sage can give
Rules, how in Happiness and Ease to live :
Can shew what Good should most attract the Mind,
And how our Woes we from our Vices find ;
Delighting, yet instructing thus our Youth,
Who catch at Fable — How to gather Truth."

He then gives a prefatory "Discourse on the
Usefulness of Romances," 2 in the course of which
he says that romances are useful in that they
"Engage Young People to love Reading,"
instil in them "Address, Politeness, and a high
sense of Virtue," and teach them the geography
and customs of foreign countries. "Clownish
People, and Persons long doom'd to what is

1 In the satirical group Marana and Brown precede
Addison. The great essayist assisted in directing the
tendency, and was the first notable English writer to
popularize it. Cf . Chap. IV.

2 Dedicated to Raphael Courtevile, Esq. In the
passage quoted the author's spelling is preserved.

86 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

called Low-Life . . . ought on their coming into
the World to be treated as Children and these
Books recommended to them. By them they
are led at once into Courts and into Camps, are
taught the Language of the Toilette and the
Drawing-Room, and are made acquainted with
those superior Sentiments which inhabit only
great Souls, and distinguish true Heroes from
the Vulgar. By turning over such Volumes,
Rusticity is quickly polished, and the Beauties
of a gentile Behaviour set in such a light, as
must attract a Heart not entirely Savage. . . .
The late Humour of reading Oriental Romances,
such as the Arabian, Persian, and Turkish
Tales, though I will not contend, it has much
better'd our Morals, has, however, extended our
Notions, and made the Customs of the East
much more familiar to us than they were before,
or probably ever would have been, had they not
been communicated to us by this indirect, and
pleasant Way. Now these are certainly very
great Advantages, and very valuable Acquire-
ments, even to Men; and many giddy young
Fellows have been, by amusing tkemselves with
such Trifles, taught to conceive clearly, and to
converse properly, in relation to Things which

THE MORALISTIC GROUP 87

otherwise they would have known nothing
about." The writer then proceeds to bring out
the moral which, in his opinion, is latent in orien-
tal tales, especially in this collection. "The
grand Moral of these ingenious Tales is contained
in this Sentence: True Virtue alone is capable
of standing all Trials, and persisting therein is
the only means of attaining solid Happiness.
The Author has illustrated the Truth of this
Maxim by a Multitude of Instances, all of them
probable, and some of them I have Reason to
think founded upon matters of Fact. Human
Nature is represented . . . with strict regard to
Truth, and in a manner which cannot fail of im-
proving, as well as entertaining, the considerate
Reader. From the perusal of these Sheets, he
will have it in his Power to make a hundred
Reflections, which may produce very happy
Effects, if apply'd to the Regulation of his own
Conduct. He will, for Example, see how ridicu-
lous it is for a Man in Years to hope for Satis-
faction from "engaging in new Amours, and
vainly flattering himself that Fondness and grey
Hairs will ev^er attach the Soul of a sprightly
young Woman. . . . The Misfortunes of the
Blind Man of Chitor, cannot fail of putting him

88 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

who reads them, in Mind of the Danger there is
in making an ill Use of Court Favour, and of
studying nothing but the gratification of sensual
Appetites; what is supernatural in that Story,
is certainly wrought with great Strength of Gen-
ius, and gives us a fine Idea of the Wisdom and
Justice of Providence, in punishing the Offenses
of Mankind," and so on to the end. Similar
sentiments, though less explicit, are found in
Gueullette's own dedication of the Tartarian
Tales to the Duke of Chartres. "The Book
... is of the Nature of those which are improv-
ing as well as entertaining. Though the Sub-
ject appear light, yet it conduces to something
useful on Account of the Morality couched in
it." *

In addition to giving a general moralistic di-
rection to the uses of oriental or pseudo-oriental
material, Addison initiated the method em-
ployed in writing moral oriental tales. The simi-
larities between the two oriental tales written
by Dr. Johnson for the Rambler, and Addison's
original stories in the Spectator, are obvious and
afford another instance of Johnson's well-known
emulation of the earlier essayist. In each case

1 Quoted in the translation of 1759.

THE MORALISTIC GROUP 89

the result was insignificant in literary value.1
Yet the attitude Addison took toward this
oriental material and the use he made of it are
exceedingly interesting to the student of the
period, even though the actual tales he composed
are so few and so trifling. The same is true of
Dr. Johnson, and although his "clumsy gam-
bols," 2 and those of his contemporary imitator,
Dr. John Hawkesworth, need not detain us
long, they must not be overlooked.

Addison's touch is lighter, as might be ex-
pected, while Johnson's manner is certainly
clumsy; but in childish simplicity of plan, of
characterization, and of oriental colouring, such
a tale as Hornet and Raschid 3 is not unlike
Hilpa, Harpath, and Shalum.* Hawkesworth
followed Johnson closely in these respects.

" Ingenious Hawkesworth to this school we owe
And scarce the pupil from the tutor know." s

1 Only in so far as the moralistic tales composed by Ad-
dison and Johnson are concerned. Those referred to, pp.
80-81 , ante, as adapted by Addison, possess intrinsic value.

1 Leslie Stephen, Hours in a Library. Second Series.
London, 1876, p. 211.

3 Cf. p. 93, post. 4 Cf. p. 83, ante.

8 Courtenay, Verses on the Moral and Literary Charac-
ter of Dr. Johnson, quoted by Boswell ; Life of Johnson,
edited by G. B. Hill. Oxford, 1887, Vol. I., p. 223.

90 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

The only detailed description containing local
colour is the picture of Bozaldab's son upon
"the throne of diamonds." He is seated beside
a princess "fairer than a Houri" and is sur-
rounded by Rajahs of fifty nations. The hall
is adorned with jasper statues and ivory doors
with hinges of Golconda gold. A few customs
are briefly mentioned, e.g. pressing the royal
signet to the forehead in token of obedience, and
meeting at the well in the desert where caravans
stop.1 Neither Johnson nor Hawkesworth at-
tempts to localize the action beyond alluding to
Bagdad, the plains of India, or "all the East."
One curious characteristic differentiating these
two later essayists from Addison, is their far
more elaborate care to adorn their narratives
with what they style "the pompous language
of the East." Orientalized phrases are found in
Addison's tales, but are far simpler and less fre-
quent. Hawkesworth carries the mannerism
to extremes. "Amurath, Sultan of the East,
the judge of nations, the disciple of adversity,

1 The Story of Nouraddin and Amana, Adventurer,
No. 72 (1753). This was one of the stories translated
into French and published in Le Mercure de France.
The French title was Les Souhaits Punis, Conte Oriental;
date, August, 1760.

THE MORALISTIC GROUP 91

records the wonders of his life." "As the hand
of time scattered snow upon his head, its freez-
ing influence extended to his bosom." The
flutter of the Angel's wings is like " the rushing
of a cataract," a beautiful valley is "the Gar-
den of Hope," a dog is "thy brother of the
dust." "Despair has armed [his hand] with
a dagger." Figures of speech in Biblical
phraseology are frequent, e.g. a smile "diffused
gladness like the morning," "the straight road
of piety," "the cup of consolation," the "Angel
of Death came forward like a whirlwind." In
Johnson's tales and to a certain extent inHawkes-
worth's Carazan,1 the phrases are frequently
dignified as well as sonorous, but in other tales
by Hawkesworth and Warton the language is
absurdly "elevated," — "the hoary sage" ; "the
fatal malignity," i.e. the cup of poison; "the
screams of the melancholy birds of midnight
that flit through the echoing chambers of the
Pyramids." Such diction is noticeable in con-
trast to the plain English of Hawkesworth's
non-oriental tales, e.g. the story of Melissa,2
and indicates unmistakably that "pompous
language" was one essential in the eighteenth-

1 Adventurer, No. 132. 2 Ibid., Nos. 7 and 8.

92 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

century concept of the oriental tale. This is
the more curious, since in the genuine oriental
tales known in England at the time Johnson
and Hawkesworth were writing, such language
is the exception rather than the rule.1 In the
Persian Tales, for instance, the collection where
one might expect to find figurative language,
reference is made once or twice to the nightin-
gale as lover of the rose, but figures such as the
following are noticeably rare : " I lie down upon
the thorns of uneasiness; the poison of your
absence preys upon my heart and insensibty con-
sumes my very life." "Your forehead is like
a plate of polished silver; your brows resemble
two spacious arches; your eyes sparkle beyond
diamonds; . . . your mouth is a ruby casket
that holds a bracelet of pearls." The rarity
of such language is worth noting, for, as has been
suggested, the later pseudo-orientalists thought
they must fill their pages with such figures in
order to be "oriental" —a delusion satirized
by Goldsmith. "They believe," he says, "that
in an oriental tale nothing is required but sub-

1 Contrast the later oriental tales translated about the
close of this period, e.g. the Persian Tales of Inatulla,
which is exceedingly flowery in language. For full title,
cf. App. B, II., No. 36, p. 301.

THE MORALISTIC GROUP 93

limity ... all is great, obscure, magnificent,
and unintelligible." 1

Not only in language, but also in incident,
Hawkesworth is far more fantastic than either
Addison or Johnson. Obidah, in Obidah, tJie son
of Abensima, and the Hermit, an Eastern Story,2
follows a pleasant but misleading path, is over-
taken by a storm, and meets a Hermit who
preaches to him on the journey of life and the
necessity of following the right road. The Story
of the Shepherds Harriet and Raschid 3 is equally
brief and unintricate. The fields of the two
shepherds, who lived on the plains of India, were
suffering from drought. A genius appeared
with the offer of gifts. Hamet asked a little,
steady brook; Raschid demanded the Ganges.
The moral is as prompt and complete as in
an old-fashioned Sunday-school tale. Hamet 's
grounds prospered; Raschid 's were swept away,
and — "a crocodile devoured him " ! Hawkes-
worth is not content with such childlike sim-
plicity. His Ring of Amurath 4 is as ingenious as
it is moral. The sultan Amurath is presented

1 Citizen of the World, Letter XXXIII. a. Chap. IV.

J Rambler, No. 65.

3 Ibid., No. 38. 4 Adventurer, Nos. 20, 21, 22.

94 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

with a magic ring by a Genius, who warns him
that the ring will grow pale and press his finger
whenever he sins. Amurath degenerates into
a cruel and sensual tyrant, vainly pursues Se-
lima, the daughter of his vizier, throws away the
painful ring, and is transformed by the Genius
into a "monster of the desert." Captured
and cruelly abused, he finally saves the life of
his keeper, and in reward for this, his first good
act, is changed into a dog. In this form, enter-
ing by chance the city of lawless pleasure, he
beholds the horrors of unrestrained crime, and
is poisoned. In his next form, that of a white
dove, he reaches — again by chance — a hermit's
cave, where he beholds Selima telling her story
to the hermit. Amurath feels "the sentiments
of pure affection" and, in consequence, resumes
human shape. The hermit, who is the Genius,
preaches a final sermon and dismisses them to
reign over Golconda. They will now be happy,
he says, because they have learned to be wise
and virtuous. Equally fantastic and more for-
tuitous are the events in the sketch, Transmi-
gration of a Soul,1 a story told by a flea, a real-
istic, disagreeable account of cruelties inflicted
1 Adventurer, No. 5.

THE MORALISTIC GROUP 95

by men on animals. Sometimes Hawkesworth's
tales are free from grotesque fancies, e.g. the
story of Carazan l the miser, who dreams he is
before the Judgment Seat and condemned to
eternal solitude. He awakens, reforms, and
gives a great feast to the poor. Such a tale is
commonplace, but in its simplicity is not en-
tirely unimpressive. In the majority of Hawkes-
worth's tales, however, the fantastic elements
predominate.

Of Almoran and Harriet (1761), the best known
of Hawkesworth's tales outside of the periodi-
cals, much the same may be said. The story
is similar to Nouraddin and Amana, but is more
elaborate. The deus ex machina is a genius who
gives supernatural aid to the tyrant Almoran
in pursuing his evil desires. A magic talisman
enables Almoran to assume other persons'
forms, prodigies apparently from heaven alarm
his opponents; yet each of his wishes is frus-
trated by the virtuous acts of his brother Hamet
and the beautiful Almeida, until in the end he is
metamorphosed into a rock, and they are left
to reign in peace. The oriental colouring is thin
and the characterization feeble. Yet the tale
1 Adventurer, No. 132.

96 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

won, for a time, great popularity, due partly to
the melodramatic interest, partly to the moraliz-
ing tone.1 The author discourses on the essen-
tials of good government, the duties of a king,
the question of immortality, and the idea that
the pursuit of pleasure alone defeats its own end.
In certain ways the story reminds one of Vathek
and again of Seged* Almoran, like Vathek,
longs for the gratification of every desire. "If
I must perish," said he, "I will at least perish
unsubdued. I will quench no wish that nature
kindles in my bosom ; nor shall my lips utter any
prayer but for new powers to feed the flame."
In answer to these words, the Genius appears,
"one of those delusive phantoms, which, under
the appearance of pleasure, were leading him to
destruction." Like Seged, Almoran finds that
the deliberate attempt to be happy at any cost
ends in greater pain. Both tales represent an
idea that was persistent in the philosophy of the
eighteenth century, and was to find its most

1 The Fair Circassian, a Tragedy, by Samuel J. Pratt,
second edition, London, 1781 ; third edition, same year,
was based on Almoran and Harriet. Cf. Preface, third
edition. This must not be confused with The Fair
Circassian, a dramatic performance by a gentleman-com-
moner of Oxford [Samuel Croxall] .... Taken from the
Song of Solomon, 1755. 2 Cf. p. 123, post.

THE MORALISTIC GROUP 97

artistic expression in Rasselas and The Vanity
of Human Wishes.

Two other moral tales, Langhorne's Solyman
and Almena (17G2),1 and Mrs. Sheridan's Nour-
jahad (1767), 2 similar to Hawkesworth's stories,
likewise enjoyed considerable popularity. Nour-
jahad narrates the experiences of a sultan's
favourite, whose chief desires are inexhaustible
riches and " prolongation of his life to eternity to
enjoy them." The sultan causes the apparent
fulfilment of these wishes, and Nourjahad rap-
idly degenerates through selfish indulgence in
pleasures of the senses into an impious and mur-
derous tyrant. His acts are accompanied by
increasing unhappiness: the loss of his mistress,
Mandana, the ingratitude of his son, the deser-
tion of all his servants except one, Cozro, who
acts as his conscience, recapitulates his sins, and
demonstrates that, "by the immutable laws of
Heaven . . . either in this world or the next,
vice will meet its just reward." Cozro teaches
the repentant Nourjahad the happiness that
comes from generosity to the poor and suffer-
ing, and the faith in one's own rectitude and in

1 Cf. App. B, I., No. 52, p. 284.

2 Cf. App. B, I., No. 57, p. 285.

98 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

Heaven, that makes man superior to death.
Nourjahad is finally brought to despise riches;
to desire to save Cozro's life by losing his own;
and, when that is unavailing, to accept the pros-
pect of death rather than bribe his jailer. At the
last moment the sultan reveals to Nourjahad
that he has been disguised as Cozro, that Man-
dana still lives and has impersonated Nourja-
had's guardian genius, and that the whole series
of events has been arranged to test and to purify
Nourjahad's character.

The story has a certain amount of interest.
The illusion is well sustained, and the denoue-
ment comes with considerable force. There is an
attempt at oriental colouring in the descriptions
of the omnipotent sultan, the forests and gardens,
the mourning in the city for the sultan's death,
the bribery of cadi and jailers, and the urns full
of gold pieces and rare jewels in the subterranean
treasure-vault. But the colouring is faint and
serves only as a vague background for the story.
There is unity in the development of the central
idea of Nourjahad's evil desires, their result and
his change of heart; there is, however, no real
characterization. The burden of the moral and
of the inflated, pompous diction is heavy, but
the narrative is clear and often vivid.

THE MORALISTIC GROUP 99

In Solyman and Almena the oriental colouring
is paler even than in Nourjahad. " In the pleas-
ant valley of Mesopotamia on the banks of the
Irwan lived Solyman, son of Ardavan the sage,"
who worshipped the sacred Mithra. Names,
places, mention of a few oriental customs like
the suttee, occasional metaphors, suffice in the
eyes of the author to make the tale oriental.
His chief delight is to moralize and philosophize
in gentle and leisurely fashion. The story be-
gins with Solyman's desire to travel in order to
gain knowledge of mankind and of God. It ad-
vances slowly because frequently broken by
generalizations, by descriptions of places like
the "frowning" ruins of Persepolis and emotions
aroused thereby, and also by digressions on the
state of literature and manners in England. The
extreme sentimentality of the lovers and their
floods of tears often delay the progress of events.
The language used is eminently suitable. When
Solyman found that "to all the elegant graces
of female softness, she [Almena] added the vir-
tues of benevolence, his friendship for her was
heightened into the most refined affection."
On the whole, although the story is stiff, tedious,
and over-moralistic, it has an attractive kind of

100 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

purity and sweetness like the fragrance from an
old-fashioned garden.

In many respects similar to the fiction dis-
cussed above, but superior in narrative direct-
ness and force is the moral tale by Miss
Edgeworth, Murad the Unlucky. It was not
published until 1804,1 and therefore would fall
outside of our study, were it not so similar in
character to the fiction under consideration.
The starting-point of this story is a query by the
Sultan of Constantinople concerning the tale of
Cogia Hassan, the Rope-maker, and the Two
Friends Saad and Saadi in the Arabian Nights.
The Sultan, like Haroun Alraschid, is amusing
himself by going at night, in disguise, through the
streets of his city. Recollecting the tale of Cogia
Hassan, he declares to his companion, the vizier,
that " fortune does more for men than prudence."
The vizier takes the opposite view and cites as
instances two brothers, called Murad the Un-
lucky and Saladin the Lucky. The brothers re-
count the stories of their lives, and at the close
the Sultan says to his vizier: "I acknowledge
that the histories of Saladin. the Lucky and Murad
the Unlucky favour your opinion, that prudence

1 In Popular Tales. Cf. App. B, I., No. 92, p. 292.

THE MORALISTIC GROUP 101

has more influence than chance in human affairs.
The success and happiness of Saladin seem to me
to have arisen from his prudence: by that pru-
dence Constantinople has been saved from flames
and from the plague. Had Murad possessed
his brother's discretion, he would not have been
on the point of losing his head for selling rolls
which he did not bake ; he would not have been
kicked by a mule or bastinadoed for finding a
ring; he would not have been robbed by one
party of soldiers or shot by another; he would not
have been lost in a desert, or cheated by a Jew;
he would not have set a ship on fire ; nor would
he have caught the plague, and spread it through
Grand Cairo; he would not have run my sul-
tana's looking-glass through the body, instead of
a robber; he would not have believed that the
fate of his life depended on certain verses on a
china vase; nor would he, at last, have broken
this precious talisman by washing it with hot
water. Henceforward, let Murad the Unlucky
be named Murad the Imprudent; let Saladin
preserve the surname he merits, and be hence-
forth called Saladin the Prudent." l Such a

1 Popular Tales, by Miss Edgeworth. Philadelphia
and New York, 1849, pp. 67, 68.

102 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

quotation readily shows how far removed from
the Arabian Nights were the moralistic tales,
imitating, as they did, the manner only and
not the spirit of their prototypes.

Of Ridley's Tales of the Genii (1764), ' the
translation of Le Camus's Abdeker, or the Art
of Preserving Beauty (1754),2 and The Vizirs,
or the Enchanted Labyrinth, an Oriental Tale
(1774) 8 by Mme. Fauques de Vaucluse, the same
may be said with even greater emphasis. The
subtitle of the first, "Delightful Lessons of
Horam the Son of Asmar," betrays the author's
purpose, which proves to be to disguise "the
true doctrines of morality under the delightful
allegories of romantic enchantment." The dis-
guise is thin, though the "enchantment" is
plentiful. Incantations, genii, sudden trans-
formations, flowery valleys, crystal palaces,
deserts, volcanoes, shipwrecks, are all lavishly
employed. The attempt to accumulate horrors
results once in unconscious humour: the de-
scription of the "horrid" sorcerer, who lurks
in his lurid den, cherishing "his tube burning

1 Cf. App. B, I., No. 53, p. 284.

2 Cf. App. B, I., No. 46, p. 282.

3 Cf. App. B, I., No. 62, p. 286.

THE MORALISTIC GROUP 103

with the foetid herb tobacco, filling the cave
with its poisonous odour." But the narratives,
in general, are tedious, and the continual moral-
izing is anything but "delightful." Abdeker is
also unimportant but curious — an awkward com-
bination of an Eastern love-story with recipes
for cosmetics and lectures on hygiene. The form
is a frame-tale in which a few minor tales, such
as Zinzima and Azor, are inserted. The Vizirs
is a fanciful, tediously moralized story of the
complicated adventures of several Eastern
princes and princesses.

One curious instance of the general propensity
to moralize is Dinarbas, a Tale, being a Continua-
tion of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1790). 1 The
idea of such a sequel was suggested to the author
by Sir John Hawkins's statement that Dr. John-
son " had an intention of marrying his hero and
placing him in a state of permanent felicity."2
The author's purpose is to show that love,
friendship, and virtuous, altruistic conduct bring
happiness. Rasselas is the hero of the book;

1 Published anonymously; written by Ellis Cornelia
Knight, "lady companion to the Princess Charlotte of
Wales," and reaching its fourth edition by 1800. Cf.
App. B, I., No. 79, p. 290. On Rasselas, cf. Chap. III.,
post. 2 Introduction to Dinarbas.

104 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

Dinarbas is his friend. Rasselas quells a rebel-
lion against his father, the Emperor; is falsely
accused, imprisoned, and, by aid of Dinarbas,
liberated; succeeds to the throne of Abyssinia,
marries the sister of Dinarbas, and gives his
sister Nekayah to Dinarbas. The story closes
with their visit to the Happy Valley to set free
its inhabitants. Throughout the book the au-
thor inculcates resignation, rectitude, courage,
usefulness, and other virtues, and endeavours
"to afford consolation or relief to the wretched
traveler, terrified and disheartened at the rugged
paths of life." Dinarbas is obviously inferior to
its predecessor; its value is not literary but his-
torical— as an evidence of the desire to moralize
everything, even the philosophic tales.

It is not surprising to find in this period sev-
eral editions of the Fdbks of Pilpay [or Bidpai],
a version of the ancient Kalila and Dimna,
which had been known in England since the
Middle Ages. The moralistic note in addition to
the perennial interest of these stories made an
especial appeal to eighteenth-century readers.
In 1743 appeared The Instructive and Entertaining
Fables of Pilpay, an ancient Indian Philosopher,
containing a number of excellent rules for the con-

THE MORALISTIC GROUP 105

duct of persons of all ages. London, 1743. As
early as 1711 there had appeared a book of ex-
tracts: dEsop naturalized: in a collection of
diverting fables and stories from '^Esop, Lockman,
Pilpay, and others. London, 1711; 1771.1

The name of the minor moralists of this period
is Legion. It would be superfluous to do more
than mention briefly the titles of a few works :
Contentment, a Fable; 2 Hassan (178 — ?); s The
History of Arsaces, Prince of Betlis by the editor
of Chrysal (1774) ;4 The Caliph of Bagdad,
Travels before the Flood, an Interesting Oriental
record of men and manners in the antediluvian
world interpreted in fourteen evening conversa-
tions between the Caliph of Bagdad and his Court,
translated from Arabic (1796) ; 5 The Grateful
Turk, in Moral Tales by Esteemed Writers
(1800 ?) ; 8 Hamet and Selinda an Eastern Tale
in The Baloon or aerostatic Spy, a novel containing

1 Cf. App. B, I., No. 10, p. 271.

2 Bound in with The History of Abdalla and Zoraide,
or Filial and Paternal Love. London, 1750. Cf. p. 71,
ante, and App. B, I., No. 41, p. 281.

3 Cf. App. B, I., No. 66, p. 287.

4 Cf. App. B, I., No. 63 (a), p. 286.

5 Cf. App. B, I., No. 86, p. 291, and Amorassan, p.
71, ante.

• Cf. App. B, I., No. 90, p. 292.

106 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

a series of adventures of an aerial traveller
(1786).1

In the last half of the century several collec-
tions of such oriental tales, chiefly moralistic, were
made. "Mr. Addison's" Interesting Anecdotes,
memoirs, Allegories, essays, and poetical frag-
ments, tending to amuse the fancy and inculcate
morality (1797)2 in sixteen volumes, contains a
great variety of oriental and unoriental tales
taken, usually without naming the author, from
the Rambler, the Adventurer, and other sources.
A similar collection is The Orientalist, a volume
of Tales after the Eastern taste, by the author of
Roderick Random, Sir Lancelot Greaves, etc., and
Others (1773). 3 Some of these tales are fanciful;
many moralizing. One is a direct and unac-
knowledged translation of Marmontel's Soliman
II.* No authors' names are given. The tales
are brief, uninteresting, and, with a few exceptions
such as Soliman II., of little value. The ten-
dency, found in France earlier in the century,
to "moralize" oriental stories and fairy tales for
the edification of children is exemplified by a

1 Cf. App. B, I., No. 74, p. 289.

2 Cf. App. B, I., No. 87, p. 291.

8Cf. App. B, I., No. 58 (6), pp. 285, 286.
4 Cf. p. 204 et seq., post.

THE MORALISTIC GROUP 107

collection popular for several years after its pub-
lication: The Blossoms of Morality. Intended
for the Amusement and Instruction of Young
Ladies and Gentlemen by the Editor of the Looking
Glass for the Mind (1789). 1 In this collection
are a few "oriental" tales, e.g. The Pleasures
of Contentment, a "tedious brief" story of the
good vizier Alibeg, unjustly exiled, discovered
contentedly living as a hermit, surrounded by
affectionate domestic animals. Recalled to of-
fice by popular demand, Alibeg sheds a few tears
upon leaving his pastoral retreat, but returns
to the city, rules wisely, and is content always
and everywhere. The same collection contains
An Oriental Tale; Generosity Rewarded; The
Anxieties of Royalty; The Generous Punishment;
— all, tales with "oriental" traces; — and The
Beautiful Statue, a diluted version of the ad-
mirable tale of Zeyn Alasnam in the Arabian
Nights, pitiably moralized. Finally, The Orien-
tal Moralist appeared, in which "the Beauties
of the Arabian Nights' Entertainments" were
"accompanied with suitable reflections adapted
to each story," by the Rev. Mr. Cooper (1790 ?).2

1 Cf. App. B, I., No. 77, p. 289.
1 Cf. App. B, L, No. 78, p. 290.

108 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

The editor's preface needs no comment: "Dur-
ing a trip which I lately made to the Continent,
I accidentally met with (at an Inn where I had
occasion to halt a short time) a French edition
of the Arabian Nights' Entertainments; having
no other book at hand I was induced to wade
through it. When I had finished ... it struck
my imagination, that those tales might be com-
pared to a once rich and luxuriant garden, neg-
lected and run to waste, where scarce anything
strikes the common observer but the weeds and
briars with which it is overrun, whilst the more
penetrating eye of the experienced gardener dis-
covers . . . some . . . delightful flowers. Full
of this idea, I determined to turn florist,
and to traverse this wild and unweeded spot
with a cautious and discriminating eye, ... to
cull a pleasing nosegay for my youthful friends.
Quitting the simile, I have endeavoured to select
a few of the most interesting tales, have given
them a new dress in point of language, and have
carefully expurgated everything that could give
the least offense to the most delicate reader.
Not satisfied barely with these views, I have
added many moral reflections, wherever the story
would admit of them. I have, in many instances,

THE MORALISTIC GROUP 109

considerably altered the fables, and have given
them a turn, which appeared to me the most
likely to promote the love of virtue, to fortify
the youthful heart against the impressions of vice,
and to point out to them the paths which lead to
peace, happiness, and honour." In accordance
with this purpose Cooper gave the following
new ending to Aladdin: "Sir, said the Sultana,
after she had finished the story of the Wonderful
Lamp, your majesty, without doubt, has ob-
served, in the person of the African magician,
a man abandoned to the passion of possessing
immense treasures by the most horrid and
detestable means. On the contrary, your maj-
esty sees in Aladdin a person of mean birth,
raised to the regal dignity, making use of the
same treasures . . . just as he had occasion for
them, or when an opportunity offered of applying
them to the relief of the necessitous, or in reward-
ing industry and encouraging the practice of
virtue." After that, the instant execution of
the Sultana would have been, on the part of his
majesty, justifiable homicide. Ha wkes worth,
in the concluding number of the Adventurer, con-
fesses — hardly to the surprise of the reader
who has perused the previous one hundred and

110 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

thirty-nine essays — that he is a moral writer,
and that he has found it necessary, in writing
for "the Young and the Gay," to amuse the
imagination "while approaching the heart."
The editor of the Observer declares that simply to
say that he has "written nothing but with a
moral design would be saying very little, for it
is not the vice of the time to countenance pub-
lications of an opposite tendency; to administer
moral precepts through a pleasing medium
seems now the general study of our essayists,
dramatists, and novelists, ... to bind the rod
of the moralist with the roses of the muse."
Beyond such didacticism no moralist could go.

If we pause to consider the Moralistic Group as
a whole, our strongest impression is that of the
general paucity of literary merit. Aside from
ParnelPs Hermit, MarmonteFs contes, some of the
tales quoted by Addison and Steele, and the
Fables of Bidpai, there is nothing of noticeable
intrinsic value. The moral oriental tales com-
posed by Addison, Johnson, and Miss Edgeworth
are the least valuable part of their work, far
inferior, for instance, to the philosophic oriental
tales, The Vision of Mirza and Rasselas. Only
unusual genius can make an art of moralizing.

THE MORALISTIC GROUP 111

Average writers, — like the authors of the fif-
teenth-century morality plays or the eighteenth-
century moralists when they turned to oriental
fiction, — in their desire to express a universal
truth concerning human character or conduct,
eliminate so many individualizing traits that their
personages become mere abstractions. They do
not know the secret of embodying these abstract
ideas in concrete and appropriate types, and
hence their work lacks the beauty and universal
human interest of the Pilgrim's Progress, the
Faerie Queene, or the parables of Scripture.
Yet the minor writers of any period — and the
same is true of minor works by great writers
— frequently reflect most clearly the current
opinions of their age.1 For that reason the
Moralistic Group of oriental tales possesses a
distinct historical value.

1 "Yet for the real student, these secondary writers
[e.g. Marmontel] . . . have, as they had for Sainte-
Beuve, a peculiar interest. We see the movement, the
drift, the line, in them more clearly than in their betters,
precisely because it is less mingled with and distorted by
any intense personal idiosyncrasy. They are not dis-
tractingly great nor distracted by their own greatness;
they are clear if limited, comprehensible from beginning
to end. The man of genius, being never merely, is never
quite, of his time, the man of talent is." Professor Saints-
bury's Introduction to Marmontel's Moral Tales. . . .
London, 1895, p. xiv.

CHAPTER III

THE PHILOSOPHIC GROUP

THE Philosophic Group of oriental tales is in
number far smaller and in literary value far more
considerable than the Moralistic. Here, again,
Addison was the guide, using several oriental
stories to illustrate philosophical ideas and
composing one famous oriental tale, or rather
sketch, The Vision of Mirza.1 The Vision is
so familiar and so accessible that any detailed
account of it would be superfluous. Mirza,
from the topmost pinnacle of the high hills
of Bagdad, beholds multitudes passing over the
bridge of life, which spans a part of the great
tide of eternity. Sooner or later all fall from the
bridge and are borne out into the thick mist
toward either the islands of the blest or the dark
clouds beyond the rock of adamant. By means
of this vision, Mirza realizes the vicissitudes of
life, the certainty of death, the consolation of

1 Spectator, No. 159.
112

THE PHILOSOPHIC GROUP 113

faith, and the mystery enveloping man's exis-
tence. It is Addison's way of saying "From
the great deep to the great deep he goes." *
The form of the Vision is simplicity and clear-
ness itself. The language, lucid and direct,
displays Addison's characteristic restraint in the
use of oriental ornament and imagery. The
literary value of The Vision of Mirza as an
oriental tale lies less in the specific detail of
oriental colouring than in the general impression
of beauty and of awe. "But instead of the
rolling tide, the arched bridge, and the happy
islands, I saw nothing but the long hollow valley
of Bagdat, with oxen, sheep, and camels, grazing
upon the sides of it," — a serene English
valley, orientalized only by the name Bagdat
and the presence of the camels. And yet, if
the oriental elements were cut away from The
Vision of Mirza, the picturesque attributes
of the central metaphor, the bridge of human

1 One is reminded also of the Anglo-Saxon story of the
sparrow flying through the lighted hall from darkness to
darkness again, as a type of human life; and of the in-
scription on the Taj Mahal : " This world is only a bridge ;
therefore cross over it, but build not upon it. The
future is veiled in darkness, and one short hour alone is
given thee. Turn every moment into prayer if thou /
wouldst attain unto Heaven."

114 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

life, would go, for they are drawn from the Ma-
hometan tradition of the bridge "Al Sir£t,"
laid across hell, "finer than a hair and
sharper than the edge of a sword," over
which the souls of men pass, — the good to
the Mahometan paradise, the wicked to hell,
which is encircled by a wall of adamant.
Moreover, the quiet, cumulative force of one
slight stroke of oriental imagery after another
produces a sense of remoteness and stimulates
the imagination, especially when the phrases
echo Biblical cadences and thus attain an added
solemnity. "'Surely,' said I, 'man is but a
shadow and life a dream. . . .' 'The valley
that thou seest,' said he, ' is the vale of misery,
and the tide of water that thou seest, is part of
the great tide of eternity. . . .' 'I wished for
the wings of an eagle that I might fly away to
those happy seats ; but the genius told me there
was no passage to them except through the gates
of death.' "

The other philosophic oriental tales in the
Addisonian periodicals illustrate various themes :
the transitoriness of life, the subjectivity of time,
personal identity, and so on. Frequent phrases
suggest that in oriental thought and imagery

THE PHILOSOPHIC GROUP 115

what appealed most forcibly to Addison's
reverent nature was "likeness to those beautiful
metaphors in scripture." l One brief story is
told by him to illustrate the figure "where life
is termed a pilgrimage, and those who pass
through it are called strangers and sojourners
upon earth," and to conclude an essay on the
value of contemplating the transitoriness of
human life. A dervish mistakes a palace for an
inn, and when the king asks an explanation,
replies by a series of questions leading up to an
admirable climax. "'Sir,' says the Dervish,
'give me leave to ask your Majesty a question
or two. Who were the persons that lodged in
this house when it was first built?' The King
replied, his ancestors. 'And who,' says the
Dervish, 'was the last person that lodged here?'
The King replied, his father. 'And who is it/
says the Dervish, 'that lodges here at present?'
The King told him that it was he himself. 'And
who,' says the Dervish, ' will be here after you ? '
The King answered, the young Prince, his son.
'Ah, Sir,' said the Dervish, 'a house that changes
its inhabitants so often and receives such a per-
petual succession of guests, is not a Palace, but

1 Spectator, No. 289.

116 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

a Caravansary.' " l The oriental colouring here
is slightly stronger than in The Vision of Mirza.
The dervish, "traveling through Tartary," ar-
rived "at the town of Balk, . . . laid down
his wallet and spread his carpet in order to re-
pose himself upon it, after the manner of
Eastern nations." The notion of the sub- V
jectivity of time as set forth by Locke is ex-
emplified in the account of Mahomet's journey to
the seven heavens in the twinkling of an eye,2
as well as by the adventures of the Sultan
of Egypt.2 The latter story, drawn from the
Turkish Tales, is interestingly told, though
shorn of most of its picturesque details. From
the Persian Tales an unknown contributor to
the Spectator takes the story of Fadlallah and
Zemroude, and introduces it by a quotation
from "Mr. Locke" on personal identity and by
these remarks: "I was mightily pleased by a
story in some measure applicable to this piece
of philosophy, which I read the other day in
the Persian Tales, as they are lately very well
translated by Mr. Philips . . . these stories are

1 Spectator, No. 289 ; attributed by Addison to the
travels of Sir John Chardin.

2 Spectator, No. 94.

THE PHILOSOPHIC GROUP 117

writ after the Eastern manner, but somewhat
more correct." * The writer chastens the style
of his quotation still further by eliminating many
of the imaginative elements for the sake of the
"piece of philosophy." The idea of perpetual
suspense is illustrated by reference not only to
the mediaeval ass between two bundles of hay
but also to Mahomet's coffin suspended in mid-
air by magnets.2 The misery and ingratitude of
humanity is shown by a vision.3 The concep-
tion of the development of philosophy and
virtue in a man on a desert island, guided by
"the pure light and universal benevolence of
nature," 4 is given as a quotation from an
Arabian author. It calls to mind Mrs. Behn's
Oroonoko and his successor, the "natural man"
of the eighteenth century. In all these narra-
tives or fragments of narratives the tone is
speculative rather than directly didactic, but all
except Fadlallah and Zemroude are used to
point a moral. With one exception, all the

1 Spectator, No. 578.

2 Spectator, No. 191. 3 Spectator, No. 604.

4 Guardian, No. 61 (Pope). The story is probably
The Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan, cf. p. 126 et seq., post.
Pope also quotes the tale of the Traveler and the Adder,
which he calls "one of the Persian fables of Pilpay."

118 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

philosophical and moral ideas in the twenty-nine
oriental tales found in these early periodicals,
from the opening number of the Tatler, in 1709,
to the last issue of the Freeholder, in 1716,
are either noticeably English in character or
else universal ideas, common to English and
oriental thought. The one exception1 is the
doctrine of transmigration of souls, which has
been attributed to oriental philosophy. Yet
this doctrine is Pythagorean as well as oriental,
and the ultimate, source, though possibly ori-
ental, is unknown. In general the philoso-
phizing in the periodicals is along the lines of
universal thought, expressed in a thoroughly
English and Addisonian manner.

In the philosophic as in the moralistic tales
the most famous of Addison's successors was
Dr. Johnson. As suggested above,2 the differ-
ence in temperament between the two men is
clearly reflected in their periodicals. Addison's

1 Spectator, No. 343. At the opening of this essay
Addison makes Will Honeycomb quote Sir Paul Rycaut's
account of Mahometan beliefs, including transmigration.
The story of Pug's adventures resembles that of the
transmigrations of Fum Hoam (Chinese Tales, cf. Chap.
I., ante). The idea of metempsychosis was a favourite
one in the early eighteenth century, witness Fielding's
Journey from this World to the Next. * p. 89.

THE PHILOSOPHIC GROUP 119

lighter touch and buoyant spirit are replaced in
the Rambkr and the Idler by Johnson's heavier
style and more uniformly serious purpose. And
yet the Rambler and its imitators have much in
common with the earlier group. The similarity
is especially noticeable in those parts of John-
son's work that are deliberate and conscious
imitations. Addison had used the oriental tale
among other devices to convey instruction
under the guise of amusement; Johnson did
likewise. The story of Ortogrul of Basra * dis-
tinctly recalls Addison's oriental tales. The
scene is laid in Bagdad, and the narrative opens
with an account of Ortogrul wandering in "the
tranquillity of meditation" along the streets.
He is taught the value of slow and constant
industry by a dream, in which, like Mirza, he
beholds a vision from a hilltop. The genius in
Mirza is replaced by the father of Ortogrul, who
directs the latter's gaze to an ineffectual torrent
and to a slow but sure "rivulet," and points the
moral. For local colour in these tales Johnson
is satisfied with vague allusions such as that to
the vizier's return from the divan to spacious
apartments in his palace, hung with golden

1 Idler, No. 99.

120 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

tapestry and carpeted with silk. Dates, places,
and oriental customs are likewise indistinct.
"In the reign of Zenghis Can," "Samarcand,"
"Arabia," "the emirs and viziers, the sons of
valour and of wisdom, that stand at the corners
of the Indian throne, to assist the Councils," —
such brief references suffice for Johnson's pur-
pose. Like Addison, too, Johnson feels that an
oriental tale demands elevated and dignified
diction, Biblical imagery, and the abstract,
general term instead of the concrete.

But there the likeness ends, for Johnson's
early oriental tales, far more than any of his
other writings, are embellished with peculiarly
Johnsonian Latin derivatives and resounding
antitheses. Sometimes the style gains by these
means the added force and dignity purposed by
the author. "In the height of my power, I
said to defamation, who will hear thee? and
to artifice, what canst thou perform?" . . .
"The clouds of sorrow gathered round his
head." But often this attempt at rhetorical
ornamentation results in bombast and uninten-
tional humour: "The curls of beauty fell from
his head;" "the voracious grave is howling for
its prey;" "he practised the smile of universal

THE PHILOSOPHIC GROUP 121

courtesy;" "a frigorific torpor encroaches upon
my veins." In Ortogrul, Johnson goes even to
this extreme in describing the rich vizier's life:
"The dishes of Luxury cover his table, the voice
of Harmony lulls him in his bowers ; he breathes
the fragrance of the groves of Java, and sleeps
upon the down of the cygnets of Ganges."
Grandiloquence of this sort takes the place of
detail in description. When Johnson wishes to
depict an Eastern princess, he portrays her
"sitting on a throne, attired in the robe of
royalty, and shining with the jewels of Gol-
conda; command sparkled in her eyes and
dignity towered on her forehead." Such a
description is eminently in keeping with John-
son's didactic purpose. Didactic in the Rambler
Johnson always is. "Instruction," in BoswelTs
words, "is the predominant purpose of the
Rambler,11 1 — instruction, whether directly in-
culcating morality, as in the moralistic tales, or
indirectly setting forth some philosophic idea
connected with human conduct, as in the six
so-called philosophic tales. Yet, even in the
latter group, Johnson's speculation is always

1 Life of Johnson, edited by G. B. Hill. Oxford, 1887,
Vol. I., p. 215.

122 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

concerned with questions of vital interest to
mankind, and hence in the deepest sense moral
questions. In all of his fiction, moralistic teach-
ings are present, whether explicit or implicit,
although less prominent than the philosophic
ideas.

Frequently pompous in diction and artificial
in manner, these stories, nevertheless, do not
lack a certain impressive simplicity in their
presentation of various aspects of Johnson's
earnest philosophy of life. His convictions of
the vanity of accumulating riches, expecting
gratitude, seeking happiness, desiring fame,
forming a definite plan for one's life, are all
found here and are all variations on his favourite
theme : the vanity of human wishes. But, even
in these short stories, Johnson reveals two other
equally characteristic aspects of his philosophy:
religious faith, and brave insistence on duty.
Nouradin the Merchant and his son Almamoulin,
which forms the whole of the Rambler, No. 120,
is prefaced by quotations on virtue, and teaches
the vanity of gathering riches. Morad the son
of Hanuth and his son Abonzaid * sets forth the
vanity of labours that wish to be rewarded by

1 Rambler, No. 190.

THE PHILOSOPHIC GROUP 123

gratitude, and concludes that the only satisfac-
tory aim of life is to please God. Seged, Lord
of Ethiopia, and his efforts to be happy,1 is ob-
viously an earlier draft of Rasselas.2 Seged,
having fulfilled all his duties as king, determined
to retire for ten days from the cares of state, in
order to be happy for that short interval. He
commanded "the house of pleasure built in an
island of the Lake Dambia, to be prepared,"
and endeavoured to gratify every desire. But
the first day there were so many pleasures to
choose from that the day slipped by without a
choice; and the other days were marred by
accidents, a bad dream, tyranny, envy among
those whom he sought to please, by the memory
of a defeat, and finally by the death of his
daughter. Hence the king concluded : " Let no
man ever presume to say, 'This day shall be
a day of happiness.'" The narrative is better

1 Rambler, Nos. 204, 205.

2 In a Voyage to Abyssinia, by Lobo, a Portuguese
Jesuit, which Johnson translated, 1735, from a French
version, mention is made, Chap. X., of Sultan Segued,
Emperor of Abyssinia, "the much-talked-of lake of
Dambia," and the bridge built across the Nile by Sultan
Segued. Neither in the edition of Rasselas by G. B.
Hill nor in that by James Macaulay is the resemblance
between Seged and Rasselas noted.

124 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

than in the other tales; it possesses more unity
and more interest. The oriental setting is
slight, the descriptions are vague, and em-
phasis is thrown upon the unadorned theme.
The strength of the story lies in the force of
this theme and the sympathetic account of
Seged's successive feelings. It is interesting to
find Johnson meditating on these questions seven
years before writing Rasselas. Two other tales,
published after Rasselas, treat of similar ideas.
Gelalledin l is like a part of the story of Imlac
in Rasselas. Gelalledin, the learned youth, re-
fused a professor's chair in hopes of returning
to his native city "to dazzle and instruct," but
when he returned, was unnoticed and ignored.
Omar, Son of Hassan,2 the good and wise servant
of the caliph, tells the plan he made in youth
for his life: ten years study; ten years
travel; marriage, and retirement from court.
But he "trifled away the years of improve-
ment," and each part of his plan was frustrated.
Terrestrial happiness is short, and it is vanity to
plan life according to one's wishes, — surely an
echo of the theme of Rasselas.
The imitators of Johnson apparently found it
1 Idler, No. 75. 2 Idler, No. 101.

THE PHILOSOPHIC GROUP 125

easier to write moralistic than philosophic tales.
At least this is true of the editor of the Adven-
turer, who was so voluminous a moralist. Only
one of his stories, Almet the Dervise,1 can be
called philosophic, and even here the author
moralizes throughout. The title given the
essay is The Value of Life fixed by Hope and
Fear and therefore dependent upon the Will: an
Eastern story. Almet is taught by an angel,
who shows him in a vision a fair landscape and
an "austere" scene and comments on them.
Like Johnson, Hawkesworth employs oriental
colouring sparingly. He exerts his imagination
upon the picture of the dervish Almet watching
the sacred lamp in the sepulcher of the prophet
and, after the angel has vanished, finding
himself at the temple porch in the serene
twilight. One other imitation of Johnson's
philosophic tales is Goldsmith's Asem, an
Eastern Tale : or a vindication of the wisdom of
Providence in the moral government of the world.2

1 Adventurer, No. 114.

2 Published in Essays by Dr. Goldsmith, 1765 (N.B.,
the Preface says: "The following essays have already
appeared at different times and in different publica-
tions"); to be found in The Bee and other Essays by
Oliver Goldsmith. . . . London and Philadelphia, 1893,
p. 187.

126 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

Asem is taught by the customary vision and
Genius. Goldsmith's fancy, not content with
the conventional introduction, pictures the
Genius walking over the lake and guiding Asem
to a beautiful country beneath its depths. The
lucid style and the occasional satire, charac-
teristic of the author, serve to distinguish this
sketch from those of his predecessors.

We have spoken of the development of the
philosophic oriental tale from Addison's Vision
of Mirza on through Johnson's work in the
Rambler and the Idler to Hawkesworth's and
Goldsmith's imitations. There remain to be
considered the translations from Voltaire, espe-
cially Zadig, and the most important philo-
sophical oriental tale of the period, Johnson's
Rasselas. But before examining these books,
which carry on the philosophizing tendency to
its culmination, it may be well to mention two
works, somewhat apart from the general cur-
rent, yet warranting a brief digression.

One is a pseudo-translation : The Bonze, or Chi-
nese Anchorite; l the other, a genuine translation
from the Arabic, The Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan.

1 The Bonze, or Chinese Anchorite, an Oriental Epic
Novel. Translated from the Mandarine language of

THE PHILOSOPHIC GROUP 127

The full title of the latter reads : 1 The Improve-
ment of Human Reason, Exhibited in the Life of
Hai Ebn Yokdhan: Written in Arabick above
500 years ago, by Abu Jaafar Ebn Tophail, In
which is demonstrated, By what Methods one
may, by the meer Light of Nature, attain the
Knowledg of things Natural and Supernatural;
more particularly the Knowledg of God, and the
Affairs of another Life, Illustrated with proper
Figures. Newly Translated from the Original
Arabick, by Simon Ockley, A. M. Vicar of
Swavesey in Cambridgshire. With an Appendix,
In which the Possibility of Man's attaining the
True Knowledge of God, and Things necessary to
Salvation, without Instruction, is briefly con-
sider'd. London . . . 1708. The bookseller's
preface to the reader summarizes the author's
purpose and outlines the story with sufficient

Hoamchi-vam, a Tartarian Proselite, by Mons. D'Alenzon,
Dedicated to Lord Kilwarling Son and Heir of the Earl of
Hillsborough, Secretary of State for the Northern Colonies.
With Adventurous wing exploring new found Worlds,
the Orient Muse unfettered with Rhyme who Sings of
Heaven, of Earth, and Wondrous mutations; Strives to
Mingle instruction with delight, in hope to gain the smile
of Approbation. Two vols. London, 1769.

1 The original spelling is preserved in the quotations
given from this work. Cf. App. B, I., No. 8, p. 270.

128 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

clearness: "The Design of the Author (who
was a Mahometan Philosopher) is to shew how
Humane Reason may, by Observation and
Experience, arrive at the Knowledge of Natural
Things, and from thence to Supernatural; par-
ticularly the Knowledge of God and a Future
State. And in order to [do] this, he supposes a
Person brought up by himself, where he was
altogether destitute of any Instruction, but
what he could get from his own Observation.
He lays the scene in some Fortunate Island,
situate under the Equinoctial; where he sup-
poses this Philosopher, either to have been bred
(according to Avicen's Hypothesis, who con-
ceiv'd a Possibility of a Man's being form'd by
the Influence of the Planets upon Matter rightly
disposed) without either Father or Mother; or
else expos'd in his Infancy, and providentially
suckled by a Roe. Not that our Author
believ'd any such matter, but only having de-
sign'd to contrive a convenient place for his
Philosopher, so as to leave him to Reason by
himself, and make his Observations without any
Guide. . . . Then he shews by what Steps
... he advanc'd . . . till at last he perceived
the Necessity of acknowledging an Infinite,

THE PHILOSOPHIC GROUP 129

Eternal, Wise Creator, and also the Immateri-
ality and Immortality of his own Soul, and that
its Happiness consisted only in a continued
Conjunction with this supream Being." The
bookseller continues with a comment to which
the reader will assent: "The Matter of this Book
is curious." One interesting description of the
solitary hero's method of making himself com-
fortable on the island recalls Robinson Crusoe,
and as this book appeared only eleven years
before Crusoe, the passage may possibly have
been seen by Defoe. Hai Ebn Yokdhan, by the
time he was twenty-one years old, "had made
abundance of pretty Contrivances. He made
himself both Cloaths and Shoes of the Skins of
such Wild Beasts as he had dissected. His
thread was made of Hair, and of the Bark of
. . . Plants. ... He made awls of sharp
Thorns. ... He learn'd the Art of Building
from the Observations he made upon the
Swallows Nests. ... He ... made a Door
... of Canes twisted together . . . etc." * One
other passage of interest is the account of his
mystical trance.2 He prepared himself by ab-
stinence and by "Imitation of the Heavenly

*p. 57, edition of 1708. J pp. 114-139, same edition.
K

130 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

Bodies" in three respects, first in exercising
beneficence toward animals and plants, second
in keeping himself "clear, bright, and pure" like
the light, third in "practising a circular motion"
until dizziness weakened his bodily faculties and
purified his spirit.1 By such means and by
constant meditation, he at last attained to the
sight of perfect vision in the highest sphere.
There he beheld the reflection of the divine
glory, the perfection of beauty, splendour, and
joy; and after that, the successive reflections of
the divine essence in the other heavenly spheres.
Thus he came to realize the dependence of all
created things on the "one, true, necessary,
self-existent" First Cause: and saw that this
world followed "the Divine World as a Shadow
does the Body." The story concludes with an
account of the friendship formed by the philoso-
pher with a holy man who came to the island,
and of their "serving God . . . till they died."
In addition to the slight resemblance to Robinson
Crusoe noted above, the book possesses interest
as a link between the work of seventeenth-
centurj'- orientalists like Dr. Pococke 2 and the

1 Cf. the dancing dervishes.

2 Dr. Edward Pococke (1604-1691) wrote a preface to
a Latin translation of Hai Ebn Yockdhan, published,
Oxford, 1671, by his son Edward Pococke (1648-1727).

THE PHILOSOPHIC GROUP 131

oriental tales of our period; and also as an
example of the exaltation of the "natural man"
found earlier in Oroonoko and later in the works
of Rousseau.

The Bonze is more curious but less valuable.
It is an odd medley of moralistic and philo-
sophic rhapsodies on all sorts of subjects, —
the Trinity, Lucifer, Adam's fall, — combined
with sentimental and coarse love-tales concern-
ing the Chinese prince Zangola's transmigra-
tions, and recounted in a vision to the sage
Confuciango. The style is so atrocious as to be
amusing, e.g. the "gay pomposity" of the pea-
cock's "beauteous tail," "horrific scenes," "old
dreadful tygers" [sic], the "elegance of heaven,"
and "the hideous tenebrosity of hell." "Ele-
gance "of every kind is frequent. ' ' Never before
was my heart susceptible of such elegant feel-
ings." "Methought mortality fell from me
like the catterpiller's [sic] form, when he be-
comes invested with elegance, and shaking his
golden wings, disdaining earth, he flies exulting
towards heaven." But when the writer goes so
far as to describe "a sunrise, orientally deco-
rated," one is irresistibly reminded of Field-
ing's cheerful parodies of flamboyant preambles

132 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

in, for example, the opening paragraph of
Chap. II., Book IV., of Tom Jones: "A short
hint of what we can do in the sublime, and
a description of Miss Sophia Western." The
Bonze in extravagance thus occupies a unique,
if insignificant, place among the philosophic
tales. Like them it discusses questions such as
the origin of evil and the search for happiness,
attempts but little local colour, and regards
the East as "romantic" and "barbaric," —
words at that time almost synonymous. "He
received me in as kind a manner as it is possible
for a mere barbarian." "There was a romantic
palace in the free taste of China, which, tied
to no partial rules, admitted all the beauties of
architecture." The attitude of the writer is one
of apologetic admiration of objects and ideas so
foreign to eighteenth-century standards. But
The Bonze, despite its aim to " mingle instruction
with delight in hope to gain the smile of appro-
bation," stands at one side in any general view
of the philosophic oriental tale, and serves to
bring into greater prominence the real value of
such works as Voltaire's Zadig and Johnson's
Rasselas.
In France, the Conte Philosophique, founded

THE PHILOSOPHIC GROUP 133

by Voltaire, had been one of the most notable
imitations of the genuine oriental tale. In
1749, only a year after the first complete French
edition appeared, Zadig l was translated into
English. The popularity it attained in Eng-
land was due in part to the fact that one of its
chapters, The Hermit, was based on the poem
by Thomas Parnell,2 in part to the fame of
Voltaire, and chiefly to the character of the
book itself. Abounding in wit, humour, and
philosophy, — qualities enhanced by Voltaire's
keen and brilliant style, — Zadig has a per-
manent value, visible even through the medium
of translation. There is a slight but sufficiently
firm thread of story, — the love of Zadig for the
queen, — and on this are strung Zadig's sepa-
rate and vari-coloured adventures. The dis-
covery of the king's lost palfrey by circumstan-
tial evidence, Zadig's pretense at worshiping
candles to rebuke his idolatrous master, the

1 Zadig, or the Book of Fate, an Oriental History trans-
lated from the French original of Mr. Voltaire. London
. . . 1749. Several other editions appeared later in the
century, and one chapter, The Hermit, separately, e.g.
1779. Of. App. B, I., No. 39 (a), p. 279; and No. 39
0'), pp. 280, 281.

J Cf. pp. 77-79, ante. Parnell's poem was one of the
sources, not the only source, of Voltaire's chapter.

134 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

frustrated attempt of Zadig's affectionate wife
to cut off his nose, his rescue from death by
a parrot's finding his verses, the fantastic scene
of the maidens in a meadow searching for a
basilisk, — such incidents are cleverly told, and
even in the English version show something of
the wit of the original French. The main story
has a good climax and a happy denouement.
Voltaire's clever manipulation of oriental colour-
ing apparently contributed not a little to the
immediate popularity of both the French and
the English versions. By the time Zadig ap-
peared,1 the European critic of manners and
thought in the disguise of an Oriental had be-
come a conventional type in the oriental tale.2
Zadig is a variant on the theme of the Lettres
Persanes. Voltaire is a more subtle satirist in
that he does not locate his Oriental in Paris,
but in Babylon. Hence, like Swift's satires, Vol-
taire's criticisms of European customs, because
ostensibly remote and not aimed at Europe, are
the more penetrating. "That show of insig-
nificant words which in Babylon they called
polite conversation." . . . "They would not

1 In French, 1747, 1748; in English, 1749.

2 Cf. Chap. IV., p. 155 et seq., post.

THE PHILOSOPHIC GROUP 135

suffer him to open his mouth in his own vindi-
cation. His pocket-book was sufficient evi-
dence against him. So strict were the Baby-
lonish laws." Zadig is, of course, Voltaire
himself, and the other characters with fanciful
"oriental" names — Arimanzes, Astarte, Seloc
— are said to be Voltaire's court enemies and
friends. Like the similar device in the pastoral,
this gave piquancy to the narrative. Voltaire's
twofold aim, to be the entertaining story-teller
and the satirical philosopher, is discernible on
every page, and his light and facile use of ori-
ental setting is not unlike Goldsmith's in The
Citizen of the World. He lays the scene in
Babylon or Egypt, the Indies or Memphis, and
mentions Siberia and Scythia to add to the
sense of remoteness. His characters wear tur-
bans and sandals, travel on the "swiftest drome-
daries" and camels, are sold as slaves to an
Arab merchant, are threatened with the bow-
string and poisoned cup. The "fair coquet"
insists that the old and gouty chief Magus shall
"dance a saraband" before her, and the beauti-
ful Almona is rescued from the suttee by the
ability of Zadig. Besides such references to
Eastern customs, there are quotations of prov-

136 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

erbs and of Zoroastrian precepts, and various
references to religious beliefs and observances,
e.g. the bridge of death, the angel Azrael,
Oromazdes, and temple worship. Chap. XI.,
The Evening's Entertainment, treats of ideas
found also in Voltaire's Fragments historiques
sur VInde: the worship of one God under the
symbol of fire by the ancient Persians; of one
supreme Deity under various symbols by the
Egyptians, etc. A heated discussion takes place
between an Egyptian, an Indian, a Greek, and
others as to the superior claims of their respec-
tive religions. They are finally brought by
Zadig's sense and tact to acknowledge that, in
truth, they all worship the Supreme Creator as
behind and above all symbols.1 By this mockery
of oriental fanaticism, Voltaire is actually satiriz-
ing European bigotry and unreason. In a simi-
lar manner he strikes at the metaphysicians.
Zadig "was well instructed in the science of the
ancient Chaldeans . . . and understood as much
of metaphysics as any that have lived after
him, — that is to say, he knew very little about
it." And, aiming ostensibly at the mercenary

1 Cf . Lessing : Nathan der Weise (apologue of the
three rings).

THE PHILOSOPHIC GROUP 137

selfishness of the Babylonian courtiers, Voltaire
hits the sycophants of the French court. The
king ordered Zadig's fine of four hundred ounces
to be restored to him. "Agreeable to his Maj-
esty's commands, the clerk of the court, the
tipstaffs, and the other petty officers, waited on
Zadig ... to refund the four hundred ounces
of gold; modestly reserving only three hundred
and ninety ounces, to defray the fees of the
court and other expenses." The inconsistency
of the oriental freebooter who thought it wrong
for the rich, but quite right for himself, to get
and keep wealth, might easily have found a
parallel in France. "I was distracted to see"
(he says) "in a wide world which ought to be
divided fairly among mankind, that Fate had
reserved so small a portion for me." Other
themes illustrated are the misery caused by
tyrants; the injustice of the social structure;
the fickleness of women who protest too much;
and above all the question of the part played
in human life by destiny, — the apparent su-
premacy of Chance, and the real supremacy
of a foreknowing and overruling Providence.
Zadig's adventures hinge upon trivial happen-
ings, and hence he doubts Providence, until the

138 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

angel, disguised as a hermit, teaches him.1 We
have spoken of Voltaire's facile use of oriental
colouring. But in Zadig few figures of speech
occur. On one occasion Zadig addresses the
judges as "glorious stars of justice," and "mir-
rors of equity." Such figures, however, are
rare, a fact the more remarkable since Voltaire
considered the immoderate use of metaphor one
of the chief characteristics of oriental writing,2
and another instance of the way in which he
subordinated the oriental setting to his serious
purpose.

Besides Zadig, several other contes philoso-
phiques by Voltaire were early translated into
English. In the majority of them, literary and
social satire predominates over philosophical
speculation, and therefore these tales may best
be classified among the Satiric Group in Chap.
IV. But in two, though satire is present, specu-
lation is predominant: The World as it Goes,

1 Cf. W. Seele, op. cit., p. 77, n. 4, ante, in which, on
p. 64, reference is made to the high estimation by Gaston
Paris, of Zadig as the most beautiful of Voltaire's ro-
mances, and of the " Hermit " as the best chapter in Zadig.

2 Cf. "On a Passage in Homer" under "Ancients and
Moderns" in Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary, tr. by
W. F. Fleming, Vol. I., Paris, London, New York,
Chicago, 1901.

THE PHILOSOPHIC GROUP 139

(1754) 1 and The Good Bramin (1763) .2 Both are
brief. The latter is a sketch of a good Bramin
who had studied much and, in his own estima-
tion, learned nothing. Hence he was unhappy,
yet he preferred his condition to that of an old
woman, who lived near him, contented because
ignorant. In conclusion the author states that
he has been unable to find any philosopher who
would accept happiness on the terms of being
ignorant. All men seem to set a greater value
on reason than on happiness. Is not that folly ?
The World as it Goes is an account of a visit to
Persepolis, i.e. Paris, by Babouc the Scythian,
sent by the genie Ithuriel to observe the in-
habitants in order to assist Ithuriel in deciding
whether or not to destroy Persepolis. Babouc
observed soldiers, church-goers, lawyers, mer-
chants, magi, men of letters, and women. In
each group he found both good and bad quali-
ties so mingled that he wavered back and forth
in his judgment, and finally grew fond of a city,
"the inhabitants of which were polite, affable,
and beneficent, though fickle, slanderous, and
vain." When obliged to report to the angel, he

1 Cf. App. B, I., No. 39 (6), p. 279.

2 Cf. App. B, I., No. 39 (/), p. 280.

140 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

presented him with a little statue made of base
metals, gold, and jewels. "Wilt thou break,"
said he to Ithuriel, "this pretty statue because
it is not wholly composed of gold and dia-
monds?" Ithuriel understood, and resolved to
spare the city and to leave "the world as it
goes." "For," he said, "if all is not well, all
is passable." Except for these conies by Vol-
taire, no philosophic oriental tales of any impor-
tance were translated from the French. The
current tended, in fact, the other way. English
tales, both moralistic and philosophic, were
translated and adapted for use in Les Mercures
de France.

Of the philosophic oriental tales composed in
English, Rasselas (1759) / the most important,
remains to be discussed. The culmination of
the fiction in the Rambler and the Idler, this
brief sketch may be regarded as the best type
of the serious English oriental tale. Written
immediately after the death of Johnson's mother,
it expresses the substance of the author's somber
philosophy of life. Though darkened by his
immediate grief, the philosophy is essentially
the same as that revealed in his conversations

1 Cf. App. B, I., No. 40, p. 281.

THE PHILOSOPHIC GROUP 141

and his verse. The theme of the tale can
hardly be stated in a better phrase than "The
Vanity of Human Wishes." Rasselas, confined
in the Happy Valley all the days of his youth,
realizes that the gratification of desire does not
confer lasting happiness; and, with his sister
Nekayah and two other companions, escapes
into the world only to discover unhappiness
everywhere. Unable to obtain even his wish to
govern a little kingdom beneficently, he resolves
to return to Abyssinia. In sight of this con-
clusion, the princess Nekayah significantly de-
clares: "The choice of life is become less
important. I hope hereafter to think only on
the choice of eternity."

The story is broken by continual philoso-
phizing, or rather the philosophizing — to the
author more important — is held together by
the slender thread of narrative. Serious and
leisurely conversations held by Rasselas with his
companions turn upon the problems of govern-
ment; the characteristics of melancholia; the
mysterious causes of good and evil; the im-
mortality of the soul ; and, most frequently, the
impossibility of attaining happiness. One of
the chief reasons for discontent is the lack of

142 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

free_ choice- "Very few . . . live by choice.
'"fCvery man is placed in his present condition by
causes which acted without his foresight and
with which he did not always willingly cooper-
ate ; and therefore you will rarely meet one who
does not think the lot of his neighbours better
than his own." Each endeavour of Rasselas to
find a happy man is unsuccessful. "The young
men of spirit and gaiety," whose only business
is pleasure, are not happy; shepherds in the
much-praised pastoral life and courtiers in gay
society are envious and discontented; hermits
are at heart unhappy, and so are the sages who
trust in empty and eloquent commonplaces on
the superiority of reason; men who advise
living "according to nature" attain only a false
content. "Marriage has many pains, but celi-
bacy has no pleasures;" old age is darkened by
loneliness and disappointed hopes; happiness
itself is the cause of keenest misery to the man
who has loved and lost a friend, and "human
life is everywhere a state in which much is to
be endured and little to be enjoyed."

The mitigating circumstance which affords
this little enjoyment is the power of man to
attain knowledge and to retain integrity. An

THE PHILOSOPHIC GROUP 143

educated intellect and a quiet conscience go far,
in Johnson's estimation, towards winning se-
renity and patience. "Knowledge" includes
poetry; the poet Imlac is a man of learning, a
scholar; and poetry is "considered as the
highest learning and regarded with a venera-
tion. ..." The poet should educate himself by
study and by observation until he is able to
fulfil his function "as the interpreter of nature
and the legislator of mankind, . . . presiding
over the thoughts and manners of future genera-
tions, ... a being superior to time and place."
To Johnson, thoroughly convinced that life
ought to be viewed from the moralistic side,
knowledge is valuable only when ideas are ap-
plied to life, and his philosophizing continually
verges towards the dividing line between specu-
lation and conduct. He rebukes those who,
while "making the choice of life," "neglect to
live"; those who, like Rasselas, pass "four
months in resolving to lose no more time in
idle resolves" ; he inculcates employment as the
best cure for sorrow ; perseverance, courage, and
honesty as essentials of character; and con-
cludes that "all that virtue can afford is quiet-
ness of conscience and a steady prospect of a

144 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

happier state; this may enable us to endure
calamity with patience, but remember that
patience must suppose pain."

This fundamental characteristic of Johnson's
philosophy of life — the sense of the consola-
tion offered to man in the midst of mystery and
unhappiness by virtue, by knowledge, and by
faith in a future existence — renders interest-
ing a comparison of Rasselas and Candide.1
The two contes philosophiques were published
almost simultaneously,2 and show striking points
of similarity and of difference. Johnson's rever-
ent manner, for instance, is opposed to Vol-
taire's habitual mockery; yet Johnson some-
times satirizes shams with savage irony, and

1 First French edition, Candide ou I'optimisme, . . .
1759; first English edition, same year.

2 Rasselas was written soon after January 23, 1759,
and published in March or April of that year. Johnson
was one of the first to observe the similarity between
the two books. " I have heard Johnson say, that if they
had not been published so closely one after the other
that there was not time for imitation, it would have
been in vain to deny that the scheme of that which
came latest was taken from the other." Boswell, Life
of Johnson, edited by G. B. Hill, Vol. I., p. 342. Hill's
note, same page : " It should seem that Candide was
published in the latter half of February, 1759 . . .
Rasselas was written before March 23; how much earlier
cannot be known."

THE PHILOSOPHIC GROUP 145

Voltaire, underneath his mockery, has an honest
reverence for the truth. Both are absolutely
independent and fearless in facing intellectual
or philosophic problems.

The themes of Rasselas and Candide are strik-
ingly similar. In this enigmatical world, says
Voltaire, which is full of unhappiness due to
misfortune and crime, optimism is false and
futile. Candide spends his sheltered youth in
a castle which he is taught to believe blindly is
the most magnificent of all castles in the best
of all possible worlds, — an environment of
ideas as artificial as the Happy Valley is for
Rasselas, and affording an equally sharp con-
trast to the real life outside. For the Happy
Valley, if we look for the meaning of Johnson's
allegory, signifies the environment, whether in-
herited or self-made, of the extreme optimist.
Rasselas has the optimistic temperament, hope-
ful, charitable, saying confidently: " Surely
happiness is somewhere to be found." The
other inhabitants of the Happy Valley, who
enter it voluntarily and can never leave it, may
be likened to optimists like Dr. Pangloss, Can-
dide's base and foolish tutor, whose blindness
is the darker because self-imposed, — none so

146 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

blind as those who will not see. Gradually the
conviction is borne in upon Rasselas that every
search for happiness is futile, and his efforts end
in a "conclusion in which nothing is concluded."
The disillusionment of Candide, less profound
than that of Rasselas, is more bitter because
based on intimate and vivid experiences of
crime and horrors.

Rasselas is Voltairean not only in general
theme but also in several specific ideas. John-
son treats with keen satire the philosopher who
"looked round him with a placid air and enjoyed
the consciousness of his own beneficence," after
exhorting men to "live according to nature."
Rasselas respectfully asked him to define his
terms, whereupon he enlarged as follows: " 'To
live according to nature is to act always with
due regard to the fitness arising from the rela-
tions ... of cause and effects; to concur with
the great . . . scheme of universal felicity; to
cooperate with the general disposition and
tendency of the present system of things.' The
prince found that this was one of the sages
whom he should understand less as he heard
him longer. He therefore bowed and was silent ;
and the philosopher, supposing him satisfied,

THE PHILOSOPHIC GROUP 147

and the rest vanquished, rose up and departed
with the air of a man that had cooperated with
the present system." The irony of Voltaire finds
an echo in Imlac's words: "learning from the
sailors the art of navigation, which I have never
practised, and . . . forming schemes for my
conduct in different situations, in not one of
which I have ever been placed." There is
obvious satire too in the account of the eminent
mechanist who discoursed learnedly upon the
art of flying. But his flying machine refused
to fly and he promptly dropped into the lake,
from which "the prince drew him to land half
dead with terror and vexation." 1 Johnson's
"wise and happy man," who talks nobly about
fortitude, but who is unable to sustain the loss
of his daughter, resembles the philosopher in
Voltaire's sketch, Les deux Consoles, who seeks
to solace a lady's grief by eloquence and refuses
to be similarly comforted upon the death of his
son. Imlac's encomium upon the busy and
cheerful monastic life has been compared with

1 Cf. G. B. Hill's note, p. 165 of his edition of Rasselas,
Oxford, 1887: "Johnson is content with giving the
artist a ducking. Voltaire would have crippled him for
life at the very least; most likely would have killed him
on the spot."

148 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

the close of Candide. There the hero meets a
contentedly ignorant old man whose entire life
is employed in cultivating his garden, and who
thus escapes from ennui, vice, and want. Can-
dide is profoundly impressed, and brushes aside
the grandiloquence of Pangloss with the sig-
nificant reply: "Cela est bien dit, . . . mais il
faut cultiver notre jardin." This is Voltaire's
last word in Candide, and, like Johnson's com-
ment upon the return of Rasselas to Abyssinia,
is "a conclusion in which nothing is concluded."
Thus the similarity of incidents and ideas brings
us back to the deeper analogy between the
themes : the disillusionment of the optimist who
has been brought up in unreality.

All this similarity is, however, counter-
balanced by an utter dissimilarity of treatment.
A consideration of Voltaire's artistic method
throws Johnson's concept of an oriental tale
into bolder relief, with the high lights on those
elements that he considered of prime impor-
tance. Voltaire enjoyed telling the story for
the sake of the 'story, and delighted in the
means he took to make blind optimism ridicu-
lous, wit and keen satire, vivid description and
incident, clever characterization, — in short, an

THE PHILOSOPHIC GROUP 149

artistic use of the concrete. Candide has been
called "the wittiest book of the eighteenth cen-
tury," and wit is a characteristic as far removed
as possible from the seriousness of Rasselas. To
Johnson the story was a means to an end, — a
frame necessary to hold together and enhance
the thought, — hence the simpler the frame the
better. In Candide the story is interpenetrated
with the theme, but not borne down by it.
Candide, like Rasselas, is searching for happi-
ness; but unlike Johnson's hero, he desires not
happiness in the abstract, — a philosophical pos-
sibility, — but pleasure in the concrete form of
his mistress. He travels far and wide, in hope-
ful anticipation; but when he finds her at
last, she is no longer fair or lovable, and his
marriage with her is perfunctory and joyless, —
a concrete, Voltairean expression of the idea
that happiness attained is often no happiness,
but vanishes in one's grasp like the apples of
dust.

The scenes of Voltaire's tale, moreover, are
not laid in remote Abyssinia, but chiefly in
Europe, with an excursion to "El Dorado" in
the New World, an impossible and comfortable
Utopia, the memory of which serves to embitter

150 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

Candide's distress during his subsequent mis-
fortunes. The Europe of the tale is clearly the
Europe of Voltaire's own day: there are obvi-
ous allusions to contemporary events, such as
the execution of the innocent English admiral
Byng in 1757, an excellent opportunity for
Voltaire's famous gibe at the English: "Dans
ce pays-ci il est bon de tuer de temps en temps
un amiral pour encourager les autres." The
characters also are more individualized than in
Rasselas, and scenes like the visit to the blase
Venetian senator Pococurante (Chap. XXV.)1
are brilliantly depicted. Throughout the entire
story one definite incident follows another, good
and bad, but never indifferent; until a general
effect of rich complexity, of rapid movement —
not unlike that of Gil Bias — is attained. In
the last analysis what more striking contrast to
this vtoTk of Voltaire, the consummate artist
and keen satirist, than Rasselas, the profoundly
philosophical tale of Johnson the moralist?
Voltaire's keen wit and brilliant mockery is
indeed exhilarating after the slow and ponder-

1 For a sketch of this scene, cf. an essay on Indif-
ferentism, by Bliss Perry in the Atlantic Monthly, Vol.
XCIL, p. 329 et seq.

THE PHILOSOPHIC GROUP 151

ous progress of Johnson's thought; but, on the
other hand, after the atmosphere of turmoil,
excitement, and repulsive crime in Candide, the
clear and pure air of Rasselas affords a wel-
come relief. In the remote regions of Johnson's
imaginary AbyssmlaTahd Egypt, events~are of
minor importance ; the quiet, even advance of
speculation concerning truth is Johnson's chief
interest. There is no emphasis on any incident
that might distract the attention, — in fact the
only noticeable events are the flight from the
Happy Valley and the adventure of Pekuah.
Neither is there any emphasis on description;
the Happy Valley is depicted in the most
general terms ; it might be any valley anywhere.
Similarly, in describing the Lady Pekuah in the
Arab's tent, or Rasselas in Cairo, or the pyra-
mids of Egypt, — in each case Johnson abstains
from the concrete and prefers the general term.
Again, as to time and place he is vague. His
scene is laid far from contemporary Europe.
"Rasselas was the fourth son of the mighty
emperor, in whose dominions the Father of
Waters begins his course, whose bounty . . .
scatters over half the world the harvests of
Egypt." In fact Johnson's method of orien-

152 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

talizing his tale was extremely simple. " Imlac
in Rasselas," he says, "I spelt with a c at the
end, because it is less like English, which should
always have the Saxon k added to the c." 1
Eastern localities are only occasionally men-
tioned, and always in a thoroughly Johnsonian
manner: "Agra, the capital of Indostan, the
city in which the Great Mogul resides ; " " Persia,
where I saw many remains of ancient magnifi-
cence, and observed many new accommoda-
tions of life." But there is no local colour,
even in the account of Imlac's journey with
the caravan to the Red Sea, or of the Arab
bandits who demanded ransom for the Lady
Pekuah, or of the story-telling in the cool of
the day. The language, clear and often simple,
always dignified and powerful, sometimes pom-
pous, is seldom orientalized by the introduc-
tion of figures such as "the frown of power,"
"the eye of wisdom," "the waves of violence,"
"the rocks of treachery." Unobstructed by

1 Boswell's Life of Johnson, edited by G. B. Hill . . .
Oxford, 1887, Vol. IV., p. 31. Cf. on "the Saxon k,"
Thomas R. Lounsbury, Confessions of a Spelling Re-
former, Atlantic Monthly, May, 1907 (Vol. XCIX.),
p. 627: "The Saxon k was the lexicographer's personal
contribution to the original English alphabet."

THE PHILOSOPHIC GROUP 153

imagery, it reflects Johnson's clear and serious
thought. The Happy Valley, as a central con-
cept, is as simple as the bridge in The Vision of
Mirza; indeed, Johnson's treatment of imagi-
native elements in general is like Addison's.
Rasselas, like Mirza, is so generalized as to be
"Everyman," lacking the specific traits of a
living individual and in so far resembling char-
acters in other oriental tales. Yet the earnest-
ness and dignity of the author raise Rasselas
above the average oriental tale. Both theme
and treatment compel attention, and like music,
may be interpreted by each reader for himself.
To a man of Johnson's temperament, habitually
threatened by melancholy, the brighter side of
life was invisible; such facts as abiding joy,
enduring content, true happiness, were beyond
his field of vision. Consequently Rasselas shows .
only the shadows of the picture, and is, in so
far, untrue to life as a whole. But the truth
that Johnson saw, he faced unflinchingly and
depicted powerfully, and by this truth, so de-
picted, Rasselas still lives. Emphasis on phi-
losophizing rather than on narrative; creation^
of a setting faint in colour; intentional vague- \
ness regarding character, time, and place, result

154 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

in a strong impression of remoteness. The
Abyssinia and Cairo of Rasselas are far-away
and shadowy places, in which shadowy people
move; but the questions raised, the grief ex-
pressed, come home to whoever "hath kept
watch o'er man's mortality," and, like Johnson,

perplexed by

" the mystery,

. . . the heavy and the weary weight
Of all this unintelligible world,"

has taken refuge in "learning," "integrity," and
"faith." These are the realities behind the
shadows in Rasselas, — realities which gain
from the vagueness and remoteness of setting a
heightened effect of universality.

CHAPTER IV

THE SATIRIC GROUP

IN France satire used the oriental tale seri-
ously for the purpose of criticizing contempo-
rary society, morals, and politics; but also
turned its criticism against the oriental tale
itself, which it travestied and parodied. These
forms of satire we may term, respectively, social
and literary, — the former, satire by means of
the oriental tale; the latter, satire upon the
oriental tale. Such social satire had appeared
as far back as 1684 with the publication of
L'Espion turc l by Giovanni Paolo Marana.
This pseudo-oriental translation catered to the
growing interest in the Orient, contributing an
important element to the oriental vogue not
actually inaugurated until the publication of the
epoch-making Mille et une Nuits (1704-1717).
The genre of pseudo-letters, founded — so far
as we know — by Marana, was continued by
Charles Riviere Dufresny in his Amusemens (sic)

1 Cf. P. Martino, op. cit.,p. 284.
155

156 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

serieux et comiqws (1699),1 culminated in the
Lettres Persanes (1721) of Montesquieu, and
was widely diffused by a score of imitators.2
A particularly light and humorous form of
social satire is exemplified in MarmonteFs prose
tale, Soliman II.

The literary satire referred to above was a
natural reaction against current enthusiasm for
the extravagance of the oriental tale. Count
Hamilton led this reaction with his entertaining
parodies on oriental stories and fairy tales;
Caylus, Voltaire, and others followed. In gen-
eral the satirizing tendency seems to have been
about evenly divided between social and literary
satire. The natural inclination of the French
to satirize foibles of social life and weaknesses
of the social structure is plainly visible. Equally

1 Cf. T. Brown, Amusements, p. 163, post. P. Mar-
tino, op. cit. (p. 288, n. 3), gives 1705 as the date of the
first edition of Dufresny. But D. Jouaust, in his Aver-
tissementto Entretiens ou Amusements serieux et comiques
par Riviere- Dufresny, Paris, 1869, affirms that this
work, whence "Montesquieu a pris I'id6e de son im-
mortelle satire," appeared "pour la premiere fois en
1699," and was reprinted. P6tit de Julleville: Histoire
de la langue et de la litter ature francaise des origines a
1900, Paris, 1898, Tome V., ... p. 596, also gives 1699
as the date of Dufresny 's work.

2 Cf . P. Martino, op. cit., p. 299.

THE SATIRIC GROUP 157

apparent is their acuteness in perceiving and
criticizing faults of literary style. In England
the emphasis was characteristically different
and rested more on conduct, less on art.
Numerous translations and imitations of Ma-
rana, Montesquieu, and others appeared ; and in
Goldsmith's Citizen of the World the genre of
pseudo-letters reached its highest point of de-
velopment in England. There were a few in-
teresting translations of French tales in which
literary and social satire were mingled, such as
those by Voltaire; and a few translations of
literary parodies by Caylus, Bougeant, and
Hamilton. But, if we except Horace Walpole's
trifling Hieroglyphic Tales, there was no original
English parody.1

As in France, so in England the impetus and
direction to this particular form of satire were
first given by Marana.2 The main idea of his
Espion Turc — the disguised Oriental observ-
ing and commenting on European society and
politics in a series of letters home — was ap-

1 Cf. The Story of Tquassaouw, p. 173, post.

2 The "Characters" (character-sketches) of the
seventeenth century, both in France and in England,
undoubtedly contributed to the pseudo-letters, and vice
versa. Cf. e.g. pp. 183 and 239, n. 1, post.

158 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

parently original with him and was immediately
popular. The first English translation, by
William Bradshaw, slightly edited by Robert
Midgley, appeared 1687-1693. 1 The character
of the eight small, dusty volumes of the Eng-
lish version is curious. An historical preface to
Vol. I. is followed by a Letter to the Reader
which, like Irving's account of the disappearance
of Diedrich Knickerbocker, tells how the Turk
vanished from his rooms leaving behind his roll
of manuscript, and beseeches the Gentle Reader's
respectful attention. The Letters form a ram-
bling journal of gossip on current politics and
satire on society. "We must not expect to find
here in Paris the great Tranquility which is at
Constantinople. The Town is so full of Coaches,
of Horses and Waggons, that the Noise sur-
passes Imaginations. Thou wilt certainly find
it strange that Men who are in Health . . .

1 This English version has been ascribed to Sir Roger
Manley by his daughter, Mrs. Manley; but it is now
"practically certain . . . that the first volume of the
Letters was composed, not by Manley, but by Marana;
and it is at least very probable that the Italian was the
author of the remainder of the work." J. M. Rigg in
the Dictionary of National Biography, article " Robert
Midgley " (1653-1723) . For title of this English version,
cf. App. B, I., No. 1, p. 267.

THE SATIRIC GROUP 159

should cause themselves to be drawn in an
Engine with Four Wheels. . . . The more
moderate French, which do not approve of this
luxury, say, That, in the Time of Henry III.
there were but Three Coaches in Paris, whereof
Two were the King's; But the Number is now
so great, that they are not to be counted. I
can tell thee no more of the Genius of the
French ; thou knowest it perfectly. There is in
all their actions a Spirit very delicate and an
Activity like that of Fire. It seems as if none
but they knew the short Duration of man's life ;
they do every Thing with so much Haste, as if
they had but one Day to live; // they go on
Foot, they run; if they ride, they fly; and if
they speak, they eat up half their Words. They
love new Inventions passionately. . . . They
love Moneys, which they look upon as the first
Matter, and second Cause of all Things; They
well nigh adore it and that is the Original Sin of
all Nations." 1 On all sorts of subjects the Spy
makes all sorts of remarks, trivial and serious,
stupid and interesting, never very profound.

1 Letter VIII. The Eight Volumes of Letters Writ by
a Turkish Spy . . . translated . . . into English . . .
London . . . 1748, Vol. I. Quotations are from this
edition, and are given in the original spelling, etc.

160 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

He gives court gossip; sketches his call upon
Cardinal Richelieu in obedience to the Cardinal's
command ; and recounts stories of Spanish cava-
liers, Italian ladies^ and Arab galley-slaves. In
oriental colouring The Turkish Spy, especially
in its earlier volumes, is more consistent than
later imitations like, for example, Lyttelton's
Persian Letters. The Spy's point of view seems
remote; he speaks as a foreigner might speak
of customs that appear to him different from
those of his native country. "How often," he
says (Vol. VI., p. 3), "have I been like to dis-
cover myself by pronouncing the sacred Bis-
millah, either when I sat down to eat, or ...
began any other Action of Importance. . . .
When I met any of my acquaintance in the
street, I was apt to forget that I had a hat on,
and instead of putting off that, according to the
Fashion of the Franks, I laid my hand in my
Breast, and sometimes bow'd so low, that my
Hat fell off. ... If I had Occasion to address
myself to a Person of Quality, I was ready to
take up the Bottom of his Cloak, Gown, or
Robe, and to kiss it in token of Reverence, as
the Custom is in the East, when we salute the
Grandees. Nay, sometimes I could not forbear

THE SATIRIC GROUP 161

falling on my Knee, or prostrate on the Ground
before Cardinal Richlieu [sic]." The descrip-
tion (Vol. I., p. 107) of the fair Paradise of
the faithful, clad in robes of "pleasing green,"
and receiving from the hands of God their
recompense, is not unlike the conventional de-
scriptions in the Adventures of Abdalla or the
Persian Tales. Eastern proverbs and stories are
quoted (Vol. I., pp. 119, 140), and Eastern or
pseudo-Eastern forms of blessing; e.g. "He
that is Lord of the East and the West, from
whose Throne hang Millions of Stars in Chains
of Gold, encrease thy Virtues and Blessings, and
preserve thee from the Poison of ill Eyes and
malicious Tongues, and bring thee to the Fields
of Endless Light" (Vol. II., p. 28); or "He
that is merciful and gracious, who hath sepa-
rated the Brightness of the Day from the Ob-
scurity of the Night, defend both thee and me
from the malice of Whisperers, from the Enchant-
ments of Wizards, and such as breathe thrice
upon the Knot of the Triple Cord" (Vol. III.,
p. 47). By slight touches throughout the
Letters, the author with more or less success
keeps up the illusion. But "the chief per-
manent interest of the once popular Letters is

162 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

derived from the fact that they inaugurated a
new species of literary composition. The simi-
lar idea of a description of England as if by a
foreigner was suggested by Swift as a good and
original one in the Journal to Stella, and was
utilized by Ned Ward and by many successors,
but Montesquieu's Lettres Persanes (1723) is
the best classical example. Many subsequent
writers, including Charles Lamb, have been
under obligations to the Letters, etc." *

1 J. M. Rigg, in the Dictionary of National Biography,
article on "Robert Midgley" (1653-1723). The date,
1723, for Montesquieu's Lettres Persanes should read 1721.
Mr. Rigg cites several volumes of Notes and Queries; but
does not give Notes and Queries, 4th Series, VIII., No-
vember, 1871, p. 415, in which Arthur Bateman writes:
"Who but remembers Elia's account of the first dis-
covery of roast pig? ... In the Turkish Spy (Vol. IV.,
book 1, letter 5) I read as follows: 'The historians say
that the first inhabitants of the earth, for above two
thousand years, lived altogether on the vegetable prod-
ucts, of which they offered the first fruits to God — it
being esteemed an inexpiable wickedness to shed the
blood of any animal, though it were in sacrifice, much
more to eat of their flesh. To this end they relate the
first slaughter of a bull to have been made at Athens
. . . and the bull being flea'd [sic], and fire laid on the
altar, they all assisted at the new sacrifice. ... In
process of time a certain priest, in the midst of his
bloody sacrifice, taking up a piece of the broiled flesh
which had fallen from the altar on the ground, and

THE SATIRIC GROUP 163

Dufresny's influence as well as Marana's on
the development of the genre of pseudo-letters
is clearly visible. The Amusements Serious and
Comical Calculated for the Meridian of London
(1700) ,' by Thomas Brown, is in part a verbal
translation, in part a paraphrase of Dufresny's
work, with the addition of graphic sketches of
London scenes and characters in the manner of
Defoe. Brown nowhere acknowledges his in-
debtedness, however. His Preface, or rather
Dufresny's, of which his is practically a transla-
tion, defends the choice of the title, Amusements
Serious and Comical, for the thoughts on life
he is about to present; and avows his purpose
of robbing neither the Ancients nor the Moderns
of learned quotations with which to decorate his
style. He will rather pillage all he gives his
reader from "the Book of the World, which is
very ancient and yet always new." Amusement
II., The Voyage of the World, a free translation

burning his fingers therewith, suddenly clapped them to
his mouth to mitigate the pain. But when he had once
tasted the sweetness of the fat, he not only longed for
more of it, but gave a piece to his assistant, and he to
others, who, all pleased with the new-found dainties,
fell to eating of flesh greedily; and hence this species
of gluttony was taught to other mortals.' "
1 Of. App. B, I., No. 2, pp. 267, 268.

164 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

of Dufresny's Amusement Second, Le Voiage du
Monde, describes general impressions of life at
court. Brown adds vivid pictures of individuals,
e.g. the Character of the Antiquated Beau: "Ob-
serve that old starched Fop there; his Hat and
Peruque continue to have as little Acquaintance
together as they had in the year '65. You
would take him for a Taylor by his Mein, but
he is another sort of an Animal, I assure you, a
Courtier, a Politician, the most unintelligible
thing now in being," etc.1 Amusement III.,
London, is based on Dufresny's Amusement III.,
Paris. For the imaginary Siamese whom Du-
fresny conceives as a traveling companion,
Brown substitutes an Indian. Brown's idea of
the location of India seems as vague as that of
a fifteenth-century explorer. He calls his com-
panion, "my Indian" and "my friendly Ameri-
can," and on the next page makes him com-
pare St. Paul's with the Chinese Wall and
contrast the irreverent conduct of Englishmen
in church with the devout worship by his coun-
trymen of "the gods in the pagods."

1 Quotations, in which the original spelling and
capitalization are preserved, are taken from The Third
Volume of the Works of Mr. Thomas Brown . . . The
Third Edition . . . London . . . 1715(?).

THE SATIRIC GROUP 165

But the chief difference between Brown's
work and Dufresny's is due to the clever way
in which the English writer enriches the brief,
generalized, mildly satirical comments of his
French original by concrete sketches of street
life, — frequently coarse, but always pictu-
resque, — which recall the work of Defoe or
Hogarth. For instance, Dufresny writes: "Je
supose * done que mon Siamois tombe des nues,
et qu'il se trouve dans le milieu de cette Cit6
vaste et tumultueuse, ou le repos et le silence on
peine a regner pendant la nuit meme. D'abord
le cahos bruiant de la rue Saint Honor6 l'e"tour-
dit et Fepouvante; la tete lui tourne.

"H voit une infinite de machines differentes
que des hommes font mouvoir: les uns sont
dessus, les autres dedans, les autres derriere;
ceux-ci portent, ceux-la sont portez; Tun tire,
1'autre pousse; 1'un frape, 1'autre crie; celui-ci
s'enfuit, 1'autre court apre"s. Je demande a
mon Siamois ce qu'il pense de ce spectacle. -
J'admire et je tremble, me repond-il; j'admire
que dans un espace si etroit tant de machines
et tant d'animaux, dont les mouvements sont
opposez ou differens, soient ainsi agitez sans se

1 Cf. p. 166, note 1, post.

166 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

confondre; se de"meler d'un tel embarras, c'est
un chef-d'oeuvre de 1'adresse des Frangois. . . .
En volant votre Paris, continue ce Voiageur
abstrait, je m'imagine voir un grand animal; les
rues sont autant de veines ou le peuple circule :
quelle vivacite" que celle de la circulation de
Paris ! — Vous voiez, lui dis-je, cette circulation
qui se fait dans le coeur de Paris; il s'en fait
une encore plus petillante dans le sang des
Parisiens; ils sont toujours agitez et toujours
actifs, leurs actions se succedent avec tant de
rapidite qu'ils commencent mille choses avant
que d'en finir une, et en finissent milles autres
avant que de les avoir commence'es. Ils sont
e'galement incapables et d'attention et de
patience; rien n'est plus prompt que 1'effet de
1'ouie et de la vue, et cependant ils ne se don-
nent le terns ni d'entendre ni de voir." 1

Compare the corresponding but far livelier
passage in Brown.2 "I will therefore suppose
this Indian of mine dropt perpendicularly from

1 The above quotation, in which the original spelling,
etc., are preserved, is from Entretiens ou Amusements
serieux et comiques par Rivibre-Dufresny, D. Jouaust,
Paris, 1869.

2 Frequent coarseness of expression precludes quota-
tion of the entire passage.

THE SATIRIC GROUP 167

the Clouds, and finds himself all on a sudden in
the midst of this prodigious and noisy City,
where Repose and Silence dare scarce shew
their Heads in the darkest Night. At first dash
the confused Clamours near Temple-Bar stun
him, fright him and make him giddy.

"He sees an infinite number of different
Machines, all in violent motion, some riding on
the top, some within, others behind, and Jehu
on the Coach-box, whirling some dignified
Villain towards the Devil, who has got an
Estate by cheating the Publick. He lolls at
full Stretch within, and half-a-dozen brawny
. . . Footmen behind.

"In that dark Shop there, several Mysteries
of Iniquity have seen Light; and its a Sign our
Saviour's Example is little regarded, since the
Money-changers are suffered to live so near the
Temple. . . . Here stands a Shop-keeper who
has not Soul enough to wear a Beaver-Hat,
with the Key of his Small-Beer in his Pocket;
and not far from him a stingy Trader who has
no Small-Beer to have a Key to. ... Some
carry, others are carried; Make way there, says
a gouty-legged Chairman. . . . Make room
there, says another Fellow driving a wheelbarrow

168 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

of Nuts, that spoil the Lungs of the City Pren-
tices. . . . One draws, another drives. Stand
up there, you blind Dog, says a Carman, will you
have the Cart squeeze [you]? . . . One Tinker
knocks, another bawls, Have you Brass-pot,
Kettle, Skillet, or Frying-Pan to mend ? Whilst
another . . . yelps louder than Homer's Stentor,
Two a groat and Four for sixpence Mackerel ?
. . . Here a sooty Chimney-sweeper takes the
Wall of a grave Alderman and a Broomman
justle[s] the Parson of the Parish. . . . Turn
out there, you . . . says a Bully with a Sword
two Yards long jarring at his Heels, and throws
him into the Kennel. By and by comes a
Christening with a Reader screwing up his
Mouth to deliver the Service alamode de Paris,
and afterwards talk immoderately nice and dull
with the Gossips . . . followed with ... a ...
Trumpeter calling in the Rabble to see a Calf
with six Legs and a Topknot. There goes a
Funeral with the Men of Rosemary after it,
licking their Lips after their hits of White,
Sack, and Claret in the House of Mourning, and
the Sexton walking before, as big and bluff as
a Beef-eater at a Coronation. Here's a Poet
scampers for't as fast as his Legs will carry

THE SATIRIC GROUP 169

him, and at his heels a brace of Bandog Bailiffs,
with open Mouths, ready to devour him and all
the Nine Muses."

Then follows the story of a visit to a coffee-
house, to St. Paul's, to the shops in Cheapside,
and to many other places. During the walk
Brown's Indian makes the remark Dufresny puts
into the mouth of his Siamese concerning the
city as an "Animal" through whose veins —
the streets — life circulates. To the final
sentence: "[The people] don't allow them-
selves time either to hear or to see," Brown
adds, "but like Moles, work in the dark and
undermine one another." The above quota-
tions suggest better than any comments the
way in which Brown utilized and enriched his
source. He discussed the same topics: the
playhouse, the promenades, gallantry, mar-
riage, and gaming-houses; and from Dufresny's
Cercle Bourgeois developed The City Lady's Visit-
ing-Day, which, despite Brown's characteristi-
cally coarse tone and biting satire, recalls some
of Addison's essays. That Brown influenced Ad-
dison has, in fact, been suggested.1 The earlier

1 George Saintsbury, A Short History of English Litera-
ture. New York, London, 1905, p. 526: "The great

170 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

writer certainly holds a significant place in the
line of development of the pseudo-letter genre.
The work of Marana, Dufresny, and Brown
was continued by Addison and Steele, the first
notable English men of letters to utilize the ori-
ental material as a vehicle for satire. In the
case of the moralistic and philosophic groups of
oriental tales they gave the initial impulse; in
this instance, though they did not originate the
satiric tendency, they did assist in popularizing
it. As early as No. 50 of the Spectator (April 27,
1711), Addison handles similar material in his
account of "the very odd observations by four
[American] Indian kings " as set down in a
manuscript left behind them. St. Paul's they
imagined to have been wrought out of a huge
misshapen rock. "It is probable that when
this great work was begun, . . . many hundred
years ago, there was some religion among this
people; for they give it the name of a temple
and have a tradition that it was designed for

essayist who immediately followed him [i.e. Brown],
owed more to him than might be imagined, and in not
a little of his work, especially in his Amusements, Serious
and Comical, which attempt an early 'London from
day to day,' there is a vividness of manners which
anticipates the best of the later novelists."

THE SATIRIC GROUP 171

men to pay their devotions in. ... But . . .
I could not observe any circumstances of de-
votion in their behaviour. . . . Instead of pay-
ing their worship to the deity of the place, they
were most of them bowing and courtesying to
one another, and a considerable number of them
fast asleep." "This island was very much in-
fested with a monstrous kind of animals, in the
shape of men, called whigs; . . . apt to knock
us down for being kings. . . . (The tory) was as
great a monster as the whig and would treat
us ill for being foreigners." After ridiculing the
wigs of Englishmen and the patches of English
ladies, the observations close, and Addison draws
the moral that we should not be so narrow as
these Indians, who regard as ridiculous all
customs unlike their own. Another essay in
the Spectator,1 similarly modeled on The Turkish
Spy or the Amusements, is a letter to the King
of Bantam from his ambassador in England,
1682, criticizing the empty compliments of Eng-
lish social and diplomatic circles, and giving
clever pictures of London life. The pretended
letter from the King of China to the Pope ask-
ing for a Christian wife 2 ridicules fantastic "ori-

1 No. 557. 2 Spectator, No. 545.

172 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

ental" descriptions; the assumptions of "his
majesty of Rome and his holiness of China";
and "the lady who shall have so much zeal as
to undertake this pilgrimage, and be an em-
press for the sake of her religion."

Two other essays, not pseudo-letters, com-
plete the slender number of satiric oriental tales
used by Addison and Steele. In one, the story
of the transmigrations of Pug, the monkey,
satirizes the ape-like character of the beau sup-
posed to be incarnate in Pug.1 In the other2
Will Honeycomb, apropos of "those dear, con-
founded creatures, women," suggests having a
marriage-fair as they do, he says, in Persia,
where homely women are endowed with the
money paid for beauties. He questions which
would be the stronger motive in Englishmen,
love of money or love of beauty. The same
essay contains a story of a merchant in a Chi-
nese town after a Tartar victory. He buys a
sack for a high price, discovers in it an old
woman, and is about to throw her into the
river, but relents when she promises wealth.
She keeps her promise, and their married life
is contented.

1 Spectator, No. 343. 2 Ibid, No. 511.

THE SATIRIC GROUP 173

In the later periodicals throughout the cen-
tury the number of such tales is even smaller
than in the Spectator. The World, No. 40, on
the "Infelicities of Marriage owing to the Hus-
band's not giving way to the Wife," contains a
bald abridgment of the Story of King Ruzvan-
chad and the Princess Cheristany "from the first
volume of the Persian Tales" The Story of the
Demise's Mirror l has almost no oriental colour-
ing and is used for social satire. The mirror
has the power of reflecting what a person really
is, what he wishes to be, and what he thinks he
is. The Connoisseur, No. 21, contains the story
of Tquassaouw and Knonmquaiha, "an Hotten-
tot story," which has been well described as
"an indecent parody of the oriental style," and
is the only example of deliberate parody in all
the eighteenth-century periodicals. As sug-
gested elsewhere,2 English writers used the ori-
ental tale, not so much for literary as for social
satire, and expressed their disapproval of the
genre by direct criticism in preference to parody.

After the social satire of Addison and of
Steele, the next in point of time and the most
notable is that of Montesquieu. His Lettres

1 Mirror, No. 8. 2p. 157, ante; and p. 230, post.

174 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

Persanes appeared in 1721.1 The date of the
first extant English translation, by Mr. Ozell,
was 1730 ; of the third edition of OzelPs version,
1731; of an anonymous translation, sixth
edition, 1776. Thus, from 1721 on past the
middle of the century, the work was accessi-
ble to English readers, and made the figure of
the observant, satirical European in oriental
disguise, introduced by The Turkish Spy, almost
as familiar in England as on the Continent.
Les Lettres Persanes is unquestionably the most
artistic example of the oriental pseudo-letter.
Montesquieu's genius raised his work above the
level of the casual and intermittent comments
and external details found in The Turkish Spy
and the court memoirs of the seventeenth cen-
tury, to philosophic and organic criticism of life.
His chief aim was to express his views on social
customs, forms of government, and questions of
religion and conduct; and as he published the
book anonymously, he was enabled to write
with great freedom. His secondary purpose

1 Cf. L. Dangeau, Montesquieu, Bibliographic de ses
aeuvres. Paris, 1874; A. Sorel, Montesquieu (In the
Series, Great French Writers), tr. by G. Masson . . .
London, 1887, p. 46. L. Vian, Histoire de Montes-
quieu . . . Paris, 1879, Chap. V.

THE SATIRIC GROUP 175

was to entertain, and to this purpose his genius
cleverly adapted the oriental colouring. The
two Persians visiting Paris, the serious Usbek
and the younger and gayer Rica, and their vari-
ous correspondents, are vivaciously, if slightly,
sketched; the best parts of the book are the
comments on European ideas and customs, but
the slender thread of story is not without in-
terest. As the author, in the Preliminary
Reflections prefixed to the quarto edition, says:
"There is nothing in the Persian Letters that
has given readers so general a satisfaction as to
find in them a sort of romance without having
expected it." 1 The "sort of romance" relates
the insubordination of Usbek's wives in his
absence and culminates in the unfaithfulness of
his favourite wife Roxane and the death of her
lover. It is Roxane who writes to Usbek the
concluding letter, informing him that she has
taken poison, and reproaching him with bitter
scorn.

The oriental colouring in the Letters is thin,
and is often set aside by the author in his eager-

1 Reprinted in Persian Letters, by M. de Montesquieu,
translated from the French, in two volumes. . . . The
Sixth Edition . . . Edinburgh, 1773. The following
quotations are from this edition.

176 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

ness to discuss general questions. Usbek and
Rica write, it is true, of bashaws, brachmans,
transmigrations; the Guebres, who worship the
sun and talk ancient Persian; Haly and Zo-
roaster; imams, magi, and the Koran. Customs
of the seraglio are frequently used as an excuse
for extreme license in description. But the
author, by taking nominally the Persian point
of view and by contrasting Persian ways with
European, satirizes the latter adroitly. Among
the subjects discussed are the evils of despotism,
the value of a mild government and of a just
administration of laws, the greediness of clergy,
the fallibility and conceit of the French Acad-
emy, the caprices of fashion, the vanity of
authors and of women. Of Spanish literature
Rica writes: "You may meet with wit and
good sense among the Spaniards, but look for
neither in their books. View but one of their
libraries, romances on this side, and school
divines on the other; you would say that they
had been made ... by some secret enemy
to human reason. The only good one of all
their books, is that which was wrote to show
the ridiculousness of all the others " (Letter
LXXVIIL). Sometimes the criticism is em-

THE SATIRIC GROUP 177

bodied in clever character-sketches, like those of
the would-be wits (Letters LIV., LXXXIL) ; the
newsmongers or Quidnuncs (Letter CXXX.) ; *
and the men of fashion (Letter LXXXVIIL).
In Letter LXXII. Rica describes "a man who
was highly pleased with himself." "He had
decided, in a quarter of an hour, three ques-
tions in morality, four historical problems, and
five points in natural philosophy. I never saw
so universal a decider; his mind was never sus-
pended by the least doubt. We left the sciences ;
talked of the news of the times. He decided the
news of the times. I was willing to catch him,
and said to myself; I must get into my strong
fort; I will take refuge in my own country; I
talked to him of Persia; but I had scarce spoke
four words to him, but he contradicted me
twice, upon the authority of Tavernier and
Chardin. Hah ! said I to myself, what a man
is this here? He will presently know all the
streets in Ispahan better than myself; I soon
determined what part to take: I was silent, I
left him to talk; and he yet decides." The
question put to Usbek whether happiness is

1 Cf. John Gay's poem, The Quidnunkis, in Chalmers,
English Poets, London, 1810, Vol. X., p. 503.

178 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

attained by virtue or by self-indulgence is
answered by the story of the Troglodites, an
ancient Arabian people to whom selfishness
brought adversity, and virtue prosperity.1
Other stories inserted, after the fashion of the
pseudo-letter genre, are The History of Apheri-
don and Astarte; 2 a so-called Greek myth; 3 the
story of the Persian Lady Anais; 4 and the in-
cident of the patient cured of insomnia by read-
ing dull books of devotion.5 It is not surprising
to read in the Preliminary Reflections: "So
great a call was there for the Persian Letters,
upon their first publication, that the book-
sellers exerted their utmost efforts to procure
continuations of them. They pulled every
author they met by the sleeve, and said, Sir, I
must beg the favour of you to write me a
collection of Persian Letters." 6

The first English collection of pseudo-letters
written in imitation of Montesquieu and his
predecessors was the Persian Letters of Lord
Lyttelton (1735). 7 Although inferior to Les

1 Letters XI -XIV. 2 Letter LXVII.

3 Letter CXLII. 4 Letter CXLI.

5 Letter CXLIII.

e P. IV. of Persian Letters cited, p. 175 n., ante.
1 Cf . App. B, I., No. 28, p. 277.

THE SATIRIC GROUP 179

Lettres Persanes in literary value, the book needs
more comment here because it is an English
work and is less well known, and also because
it directly influenced Goldsmith's Citizen of the
World. The Prefatory Letter asserts that these
letters are translated from the Persian, acknow-
ledges that they lack the "Eastern sublimity"
of the original, and attempts to forestall the
accusation that the character of the Persian is
fictitious. Many such counterfeits have ap-
peared both in France and England, the
author says, but this is genuine. His defense
not only fails to convince the reader but con-
firms the opinion gained from various authori-
ties on Lyttelton's life and from the book itself,
that it is a pseudo-translation written in Eng-
lish by Lyttelton.

The letter-form is used with far less skill than
in the Lettres Persanes. Selim the Persian at
London is supposed to write all the seventy-
eight letters to his friend Mirza at Ispahan, and
the letters have thus the monotony of a jour-
nal instead of the varied interest of letters by
several people. Lyttelton makes a slight and
ineffectual attempt to imitate the artistic quali-
ties of the dramatic narrative which forms the

180 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

framework of the Lettres Persanes, but the
reader can with difficulty disentangle the frag-
ments of plot. In Letter XXIII. Selim's friend
Abdalla is introduced, but does not appear again
until Letter XLII. He then intrusts his wife
Zelis to Selim while he returns to the East to
ransom his father from captivity. The thread
of the story is lost again until Letter LXXVIIL,
which recounts Abdalla's adventures and his re-
union with Zelis.1 Finally, in Letter LXXIX.
Selim reveals to Mirza his hopeless love for
Zelis and consequent determination to return to
Persia. The oriental colouring is as slight as
the narrative. The author occasionally remem-
bers to refer to Persia, "the resplendent palace
of our emperor," and the seraglio, or to use an
oriental phrase. "Madam " (says Selim to the
mother of an English girl whom he wishes to
marry), "I have a garden at Ispahan, adorned
with the finest flowers in the East: I have the
Persian jasmine and the tulip of Candahar; but
I have beheld an English lily more fair . . .
and far more sweet." 2 Occasionally, the in-

1 Abdalla and Zoraide, or Filial and Paternal Love,
carries the same story to this point and ends with Ab-
dalla's expression of gratitude to Selim. Cf. p. 72, ante.

2 Letter XXII. Quotations are from the edition of 1774.

THE SATIRIC GROUP 181

congruity between the Persian and English
points of view results in humour. Selim de-
scribes a card-party as a sight "very strange to
a Persian; . . . tables . . . round which were
placed several sets of men and women; they
seemed wonderfully intent upon some bits of
painted paper ... in their hands. I imagined
at first that they were performing some magical
ceremony, and that the figures ... on ...
the . . . paper were a mystical talisman. What
more confirmed me in this belief was the grimaces
and distortions of their countenances, much like
those of our magicians in the act of conjuring.
But ... I was told they were at play, and
that this was the favourite diversion of both
sexes." 1 Again he writes of a visit to a subur-
ban villa, elegant, but so cold that he thought
"the great saloon" the family bury ing-place, and
caught a cold, "which," as he said, "took away
my voice in the very instant that I was going
to complain of what he made me suffer " (Letter
XXXII.).

But the author often forgets the Persian

1 Letter V. Cf. P. Martino, op. tit., p. 289, where
reference is made to a similar passage in Dufresny's
Amusements.

182 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

point of view; his thin disguise falls off and
reveals the grave English gentleman seriously
concerned over the shortcomings of English
society and government. He uses the pseudo-
letter merely as a means to a definite satirical
end. He comments freely upon the unhappy
victims of injustice in the debtors' prison; upon
the courts of law, parliament, the evils of
parties, "the abuse of the thing called elo-
quence," the growth and value of the constitu-
tion, the faults of the educational system, the
soporific effects of fashionable opera, and the
immorality of society. He depicts various
types of character. "There is a set of people in
this country, whose activity is more useless than
the idleness of a monk. They are like those
troublesome dreams which often agitate and
perplex us in our sleep, but leave no impression
behind them when we wake. I have sent thee
an epitaph made for one of those men of busi-
ness, who ended his life and his labours not
long ago; . . . 'Here lies . . ., who lived three-
score and ten years in a continual hurry. He had
the honour of sitting in six parliaments, of being
chairman in twenty-five committees, and of making
three hundred and fifty speeches. . . . He left

THE SATIRIC GROUP 183

behind him memoirs of his own life, in five volumes
in folio. Reader, if thou shouldst be moved to
drop a tear for the loss of so considerable a Per-
son, it will be a Singular favour to the deceased;
for nobody else concerns himself about it, or
remembers that such a man was ever born ' '
(Letter XXV.). Other "Characters" are the
good-natured country gentleman, the benevo-
lent bishop, the virtuoso, the vain man, the true
wit, and the rough country squire. The last is
drawn with real vigour. The squire was vastly
enjoying the bear- and bull-baiting; and when
Selim and a Frenchman criticized the dreadful
cruelty of the sport, he "cast a very sour look
at both. ... He was dressed in a short black
wig, had his boots on, and held in his hand a
long whip, which, when the fellow fought stoutly,
he would crack very loudly by way of appro-
bation, . . . [and would say] 'Let me tell you
that if more people came hither and fewer
loitered in the drawing-room, it would not be
worse for Old England'" (Letter III.).
One of the best letters l bears a close resem-

1 Letter LXVII. The words underlined are found in
the parallel passage in Goldsmith. Other similarities
are noticeable.

184 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

blance to Letter XIV. in The Citizen of the
World: "The other morning a friend . . . told
me, with the air of one who brings an agreeable
piece of news that there was a lady who most
passionately desired the pleasure of my acquain-
tance, and had commissioned him to carry me
to see her. I will not deny to thee, that my
vanity was a little flattered with this message : I
fancied she had seen me in some public place and
had taken a liking to my person ; not being able
to comprehend what other motive could make
her send for a man she was a stranger to, in so
free and extraordinary a manner, I painted her
in my own imagination very young, and very
handsome, and set out with most pleasing expec-
tations, to see the conquest I had made: but
when I arrived at the place of assignation, I
found a little old woman, very dirty, encircled
by four or five strange fellows, one of whom
had a paper in his hand, which he was reading
to her with all the emphasis of an author."
She greeted Selim "with great satisfaction,"
saying she had long been curious to know a
Mahometan and to be initiated into all the
mysteries of the Koran in order to perfect a
system of theology she had herself contrived.

THE SATIRIC GROUP 185

'"Madam/ replied I, in great confusion, 'I did
not come to England as a missionary. . . .
But if a Persian tale would entertain you, I
could tell you one that the Eastern ladies are
mighty fond of.' 'A Persian Tale!' cried she,
'Really, sir, I am not used to be so affronted.'
At these words she retired into her closet, with
her whole train of metaphysicians; and left my
friend and me to go away, as unworthy of any
further communications with her." Another
proof that Goldsmith borrowed from Lyttelton
is the similarity of certain names and incidents
in Goldsmith's story of the Chinese Philosopher's
son and the beautiful captive 1 to those in the
tale of Abdalla in the Persian Letters. In both
are to be found the heroine Zelis, the sudden
appearance of the beautiful slave to the hero,
her account of her master's partiality, her
flight with the hero, the separation and final
reunion of hero and heroine. In putting in such
a story Goldsmith followed the traditional lines
of the genre and, as usual, improved upon the
crude method of Lyttelton, exemplified in the
utterly extraneous, coarse, and inartistic tales of
Ludovico and Honoria,2 and of Acasto and Sep-

'Cf. pp. 71 and 180, n. I, ante; and 197, post. 'Letter VI.

186 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

timius,1 apparently of Italian or Spanish origin.
Not until almost the last Letter does Lyttelton
introduce the love of Selim for Zelis, — a be-
lated attempt to enliven the tedium by some
human interest. The slight sketches of English
life break the monotony occasionally, but are not
enough to redeem the dullness of the book as a
whole. The satire is such as might be expected
from a man who has been called amiable, igno-
rant of the world, " a poor practical politician," and
' ' a gentleman of Elegant Taste in Poetry and Polite
Literature." His chief claim to remembrance
lies in the fact that he influenced Goldsmith.2

1 Letter XXXI.

2 Cf. in regard to Lyttelton (a) The Persian strip' d
of his disguise . . . Dublin, 1735, a small pamphlet of
twenty-three pages attacking Lyttelton' s "late libel
intitled Letters from a Persian in England to his friend
in Ispahan."

(b) The Persian Letters continued, London, 1736, third
edition, "erroneously ascribed to Lord Lyttelton."
(Dictionary of National Biography. ~)

(c) Edward Moore's poem in defense of Lord Lyttel-
ton, The Trial of Selim the Persian for divers high crimes
and misdemeanours. (Chalmers : English Poets, London,
1810, Vol. XIV., p. 202.)

(d) The Court Secret a Melancholy Truth, now first
translated from the original Arabic by an Adept in the
Oriental Tongues, London, 1742, an anonymous work
ascribed to Lord Lyttelton, but not included in the third
edition of his works.

THE SATIRIC GROUP 187

The English pseudo-letters, aside from Lyttel-
ton's Persian Letters and Goldsmith's Citizen
of the World, are comparatively insignificant.
Among them the most popular was Horace
Walpole's Letter from Xo-Ho,1 which was written
May 12, 1757, and went through five editions in
a fortnight. It is a brief, witty satire, aimed
chiefly at the injustice of the system of political
rewards and punishments, as exemplified in
Admiral Byng's recent execution. There are a
few good hits at social amusements, at the
English weather, and at foibles of the English
character in general. The oriental disguise is
extremely thin, but is cleverly used to point
the satire. For instance, Xo-Ho says: "I
thought when a nation was engaged in a great
war with a superior power, that they must have
council [sic]. I was deceived ; reason in China is
not reason in England . . . my friend Lien Chi, I
tell thee things as they are; I pretend not to
account for the conduct of Englishmen; I told
thee before, they are incomprehensible." Xo-Ho
refers to "our august emperor," and swears by

1 A Letter from Xo-Ho, a Chinese Philosopher at Lon-
don, to his friend Lien Chi at Peking, in Works of Horatio
Walpole, Earl of Orford, London, 1798, Vol. I., p. 205.

188 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

"Cong Fu-tsee," but the mask does not con-
ceal Walpole's supercilious smile. As a link in
the development of pseudo-letters in England,
Xo-Ho is especially interesting, being in all
probability one of the sources of Goldsmith's
Chinese Philosopher.

The Citizen of the World is a good illustration
of the tribute paid by Dr. Johnson to Gold-
smith: "Nullum quod tetigit non ornavit."
First printed in the form of bi-weekly letters in
Newbery's Public Ledger, beginning January 24,
1760, the book was immediately popular, and
was published in 1762 under the title The Citizen
of the World,1 or Letters from a Chinese Philoso-
pher residing in London to his friends in the East.
Numerous editions followed. From what source
Goldsmith caught the phrase "Citizen of the
World" is unknown.2 He may have taken it

1 Cf . The Citizen of the World, edited by A. Dobson,
2 vols., London, 1893. Introduction, pp. xi, xii.

2 The earliest use of the phrase "citizen of the world"
in English is believed to be in "England's Path to
Wealth and Honour," by Puckle, 1700. In that work
is found "An honest man is a citizen of the world. Gain
equalizeth all places to me." Cf. Socrates (Plutarch:
De Exilio, V.), "I am a citizen not of Athens or of
Greece, but of the world;" E. Edwards: Words, Facts,
and Phrases, London, 1882, pp. 117, 118; also Dante,

THE SATIRIC GROUP 189

from a French book which had appeared only
a few years before, Le Cosmopolite (1750), by
Fougeret de Monbron, and which had been re-
printed in 1752 under the title Le Citoyen du
Monde.1 Byron called it "an amusing little
volume full of French flippancy," and drew
from it a quotation 2 which he prefixed to Childe
Harold's Pilgrimage. Among Goldsmith's other
sources are, of course, Montesquieu and Marana,

"My country is the whole world," De vulg. eloq. lib. 1,
cap. 6, quoted by Burckhardt : Civilization of the Renais-
sance . . . tr. Middlemore . . . 1904, pp. 132, 133, and
note.

1 Cf. Nouvelle Biographic Generale . . . sous la Di-
rection de M. le Dr. Hoefer . . . Paris, Firmin Didot
Freres, Fils et Cie, Editeurs . . . 1865, Tome 35 ; article
on " Monbron," which mentions Le Cosmopolite, 1750, and
adds : " II y a des exemplaires, avec la date de 1752, qui
portent le titre : ' Le Citoyen du monde.' " E. H . Coleridge,
Works of Lord Byron, London, New York, 1901, Vol. II.
(Childe Harold, title-page), gives 1753 instead of 1752;
and T. Moore, Works of Lord Byron, London, 1832,
Vol. VIII., gives 1798.

1 "L'univers est une espece de livre, dont on n'a lu
que la premiere page quand on n'a vu que son pays.
J'en ai feuillet6 un assez grand nombre, que j'ai trouv6
6galement mauvaises. Get examen ne m'a point ete in-
fructueux. Je haissais ma patrie. Toutes les imper-
tinences de peuples divers, parmi lesquels j'ai vecu,
m'ont r6concilie avec elle. Quand je n'aurais tir6
d'autre benefice de mes voyages que celui-la, je n'en
regretterais ni les frais ni les fatigues."

190 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

possibly also Dufresny. The name Fum-Hoam
he probably drew from the Chinese Tales. It is
not unlikely that he knew the recent transla-
tion of Hau Kiou Chooan,1 by Wilkinson. He
undoubtedly utilized Lyttelton's Persian Letters.
Like its predecessors, The Citizen of the World
is a series of letters written ostensibly by an
Oriental describing and satirizing the manners
and customs of Europe by sharp contrast with
the real or imaginary customs of his native
land. Previous pseudo-letters had been inter-
spersed, like the Addisonian periodicals, with
episodical stories and character sketches, and
The Citizen of the World elaborated both these
lines of decoration. The most famous sketches
are those of the "Man in Black," "Beau Tibbs,"
and the "Wooden-legged Soldier." But to the
student of oriental fiction the chief interest of
these Letters lies in the ease and facility with
which Goldsmith handles his oriental material.
Instead of attempting a cumbersome description
of the Chinese Philosopher, Lien Chi Altangi,
the first letter gives brief credentials as to his

1 Hau Kiou Chooan; or the pleasing History, a trans-
lation [by J. Wilkinson] from the Chinese . . . [edited
by T. Percy], London, 1761. Cf. App. B, II., No. 28,
pp. 299, 300.

THE SATIRIC GROUP 191

honesty and respectability in a way that would
surely appeal to the English public. His friend
Fum-Hoam is a shadowy figure, just distinct
enough to be a receptive correspondent. A
touch of romance is given by the frequent men-
tion of Lien Chi's longing for home and the im-
probable but interesting love story of his son.
The heroine, a beautiful slave, proves to be
the niece of the Man in Black, Lien Chi's best
friend in London. The character of the Chinese
Philosopher is purposely vague; the comments
on London life are Goldsmith's own. Every
now and then he remembers to hold the mask
before his face and to drop a sudden remark in
character, and the result is a humorous incon-
gruity. The picture of London streets where
"a, great lazy puddle moves muddily along" is
more vivid by contrast to Lien Chi's memory
of the golden streets of Nankin.1 Ideals of

1 Cf . Letters from a Chinese Official, being an Eastern
View of Western Civilization by G. Lowes Dickinson.
New York, McClure, Phillips & Co., MCMIII. Mr.
Dickinson's book is an exceedingly interesting and
timely criticism of Western civilization, and an instance
of the vitality of the pseudo-letter genre, when the
author has something to say. Cf . Mr. William Jennings
Bryan's reply: Letters to a Chinese Official, being a
Western View of Eastern Civilization. New York,
McClure, Phillips & Co., MCMVI.

192 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

feminine beauty are all the more acutely and
quizzically described by praising absolutely
opposite Chinese standards. The justice of
literary patronage in China is contrasted with
the bribery and falsity of the English custom.
Absurd English fashions in dress and household
decoration, cruelty to animals, and inconsistent
funeral rites are freely criticized. Goldsmith
employs effectively the indirect method of the
satirist who condemns one custom by praising
its opposite. He seeks to give verisimilitude by
quotations from Confucius, "the Arabian lan-
guage," "Ambulaachamed the Arabian poet,"
and "a South American Ode." In the half-
serious, half-humorous Preface Goldsmith tells
us that "the metaphors and allusions are all
drawn from the East. This formality our
author [i.e. Lien Chi] carefully preserves.
Many of their favourite tenets in morals are
illustrated. The Chinese are grave and senten-
tious; so is he. But in one particular the re-
semblance is peculiarly striking; the Chinese
are often dull, and so is he. Nor has my as-
sistance been wanting. We are told in an old
romance of a certain knight-errant and his
horse who contracted an intimate friendship.

THE SATIRIC GROUP 193

The horse most usually bore the knight, but, in
cases of extraordinary despatch, the knight
returned the favour, and carried his horse.
Thus, in the intimacy between my author and
me, he has usually given me a lift of his Eastern
sublimity, and I have sometimes given him a
return of my colloquial ease." l Usually Gold-
smith begins a Letter with an oriental metaphor
and soon drops into plain English. Sometimes
his philosopher remembers to draw the letter
to a close with a figure of speech. Letter II.
begins: "Friend of my Heart, May the wings of
peace rest upon thy dwelling." In the same
letter the ship's progress is compared to the
swiftness of an arrow from a Tartar bow. The
goddess of Poverty is likened to a veiled Eastern
bride supposed to be beautiful, but hideous when
the veil is drawn. Vauxhall Gardens look to
Lien Chi like the dreams of Mahomet's paradise.
But Goldsmith's sense of humour and instinct
of artistic restraint show him the absurdities of
the pseudo-oriental style, and lead him to use
such figures sparingly.

1 Quotations are from The Citizen of the World, by
Oliver Goldsmith, edited by Austin Dobson, London,
1893, 2 vols.
o

194 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

The tales inserted in the Citizen of the World
reveal a similar mastery of material. The
majority are stories with a moral or satirical
import and exemplify some general proposition.
The insincerity and the brevity of effusive affec-
tion are amusingly illustrated by a variant of the
Matron of Ephesus: the story of Choang the
fondest husband and Hansi the most endearing
wife (Letter XVIII.).1 The virtue of benevo-
lence is set forth in the tale of the good king
Hamti's triumphal procession, made up of the
poor whose sufferings he had relieved (Letter
XXIII.). The Rise and Decline of the Kingdom
of Lao (Letter XXV.) is a moralistic tale con-
cerning political evils, and is modeled apparently
on the History of the Troglodites in Montesquieu
or Lyttelton. False politeness is ridiculed, first
directly, and then indirectly, by two amusing
letters from the English lady Belinda and the
Chinese lady Yaoua (Letter XXXIX.). Each
describes an absurdly ceremonious call which

1 Cf. note on this Letter in Dobson's edition of The
Citizen of the World (op. cit., p. 182, n.); W. Seele:
Voltaire's Zadig (op. cit., p. 128); and K. Campbell:
The Seven Sages of Rome . . . Boston, 1907, Introduc-
tion, pp. ci-cviii, which gives seventy-six derivates
and analogues of the story known as Vidua, of which
The Matron of Ephesus is the most famous version.

THE SATIRIC GROUP 195

her suitor makes upon her father. The folly of
avarice is taught by the story of Whang the
miller, — a tale not unlike the familiar one of
the woman who killed the goose that laid the
golden egg (Letter LXX.). Injustice thwarted
by quick wit is illustrated in the conclusion of
the story of the clever prime minister (Letter
CI.).1 Unjustly accused of misgovernment, he
asked to be banished to a desolate village. His
queen granted the request, but could find no
such village. Hence she realized the universal
prosperity of the country under her vizier's
rule, and withdrew the unjust accusation.
Several Eastern apologues are also used to
illustrate some generalization. The fable of the
elephant who prayed to be as wise as man,
suffered discontent, and was happy only when
restored to his former state of ignorance, ex-
emplifies "the misery of a being endowed with
sentiments above its capacity of fruition"
(Letter LXXXII.) ; 2 A Chinese fable, . . . Five
animals at a meal, sets forth the rapacity
of lawyers (Letter XCVIIL); and An Eastern

1 Possibly suggested by Addison's tale, Spectator,
No. 512.

2 Drawn from "the fables of Locman the Indian
moralist."

196 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

Apologue of the Genius of Love, illustrates femi-
nine insincerity and "false idolatry" (Letter
CXIV.). Similar to this apologue is the author's
dream of the Glass of Lao (Letter XLVL), which
reflects the true character of all the ladies who
look into it. All prove to be faulty except
one. Before her face the mirror remains fair,
— because she has been "deaf, dumb, and a
fool from the cradle." Two allegories in the
manner of Addison and Johnson occur, one of
Gardens of Vice and Virtue (Letter XXXI.) * ;
the other, of the Valley of Ignorance, said by
Goldsmith to be drawn from the Zend-Avesta,
but resembling the Happy Valley of Rasselas
(Letter XXXVII.). In addition to these
more or less humorous short stories with a
moralizing turn, there is one clever parody in
Hamilton's style, of the fairy stories and oriental
tales: the story of Prince Bonbenin bonbobbin

1 Cf . Sir William Chambers's Dissertation on Oriental
Gardening . . . London, 1772; and Dobson's edition
(1893) of The Citizen of the World, Vol. I., n. to p. 52, 1. 4,
in which the editor refers to An Heroic Epistle by William
Mason, ridiculing Chambers's Dissertation. Cf. also the
satire in verse, Kien Long, a Chinese Imperial eclogue
translated from a curious Oriental manuscript and in-
scribed to the author of An Heroic Epistle to Sir William
Chambers, London, 1775.

THE SATIRIC GROUP

197

bonbobbinet and the white mouse with the
green eyes ; and one longer romantic narrative :
the love and adventures of the Chinese Philoso-
pher's Son and the beautiful Zelis (beginning in
Letter VI.).1 Several tales of travel are found
in the account of the Philosopher's journey to
Europe through countries "where Nature sports
in primeval rudeness." In general, Goldsmith's
use of tales and fables is similar to Addison's
and Johnson's. His purpose is to say some-
thing serious under the guise of entertainment,
to instruct as well as to amuse. In the mouth
of his Chinese Philosopher the half-serious, half-
humorous criticism gains poignancy.2

The concept of this central character stimu-
lated Goldsmith's quizzical common sense and
keen appreciation of that incongruity which is
the soul of humour; and also afforded an op-

1 Cf. pp. 71; 180 n. 1; 185; and 191, ante.

2 " Goldsmith remembered a quotation from Voltaire
made by himself in The Monthly Review for August,
1757: 'The success of the Persian Letters arose from
the delicacy of their satire. That satire which, in the
mouth of an Asiatic, is poignant, would lose all its force
when coming from an European.' " Editor's Prefatory
Note to The Citizen of the World in Vol. II., p. 86, Works
of Oliver Goldsmith, edited by Peter Cunningham, F.S.A.,
in four volumes, New York . . . 1881.

198 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

portunity to express his democratic sympathies,
— his benevolence towards all men, Chinese and
English, far and near. This is the more notice-
able in contrast with the attitude of polite
society towards the East. The Chinese Philoso-
pher is not unduly puffed up by his reception.
"The same earnestness," he writes, "which
excites them to see a Chinese, would have made
them equally proud of a visit from a rhinoceros."
The amusing scene (Letter XIV.) — already
alluded to (p. 184) — describing Lien Chi's
visit to the old lady, ridicules the current fad
for grotesque Chinese bric-a-brac. "She took
me through several rooms, all furnished, she
told me, in the Chinese manner; sprawling
dragons, squatting pagodas, and clumsy man-
darins were stuck upon every shelf; in turning
round one must have used caution not to de-
molish a part of the precarious furniture. In a
house like this, thought I, one must live con-
tinually upon the watch; the inhabitant must
resemble a knight in an enchanted castle, who
expects to meet an adventure at every turning."
In general, the oriental decorations of the
book are quite external. Yet the repeated
reference to what the author imagines, or pre-

THE SATIRIC GROUP 199

tends to imagine, is the Chinese attitude of
mind or turn of phrase, adds to The Citizen of
the World a distinct and admirable element of
humour. The book may justly be regarded as one
of the best English oriental tales of the period.

Of the numerous French imitations of Marana
and Montesquieu only a few of any importance
were translated into English, for instance, the
Chinese Letters (1741) 1 of D'Argens, and the
Letters of a Peruvian Princess (1748) ,2 by Mme.
F. Huguet de Graffigny.

A few other comparatively unimportant
satires similar to the pseudo-letters may be
mentioned briefly. As early as 1705 appeared
The Consolidator, or Memoirs of sundry trans-
actions from the World in the Moon. Trans-
lated from the Lunar Language By the Author of
the T rue-Born Englishman? In this prose satire
Defoe imagines the author of these Memoirs
journeying from China to the Moon, in a re-
markable, feathered flying-machine called the
"Consolidator," and criticizing the state of Eu-
ropean society, politics, and letters by compari-

1 Cf. App. B, I., No. 31, p. 277.
2Cf. App. B, I., No. 38, p. 278.
8 Cf. App. B, I., No. 5, pp. 269, 270.

200 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

son and contrast with Lunar and with Chinese
conditions. Defoe's Tour through England,
(1724-1726), though not satire, is connected
with the genre of pseudo-letters in being written
as if by a foreigner. In 1730 appeared Paul
Chamberlain's translation of Mme. de Gomez's
Persian Anecdotes? "a historical romance," pur-
porting to be founded on actual history: "the
singular events in the life of Ismael, Sophy of
Persia," as related in the memoirs of D'Agout,
De la Porte, and De la Forests, ambassadors of
France at the Porte. The author protests
vigorously against the charge that the romance
is fictitious, but the character of the work seems
to indicate that the charge is well founded.
Upon an incoherent basis of historical fact is
built a still more incoherent and rambling
structure of fiction, — a panorama of stories
concerning innumerable characters, more or less
connected with the figures of the two friends,
Ismael and Tor. Full of battles, insurrections,
crimes, intrigues, — political and romantic, —
the book is commonplace and of little general
value. It is of interest here only because the
externals are oriental: the scenes are laid in
1 Cf. App. B, I., No. 25, p. 276.

THE SATIRIC GROUP 201

the East; the proper names are Eastern, and
there is a slight attempt to reproduce oriental
customs. The popularity of the oriental dis-
guise for various purposes is also shown by
books like the Perseis or Secret Memoirs for a
History of Persia.1 The preface to the French
original asserts that the book is translated from
an English work by an Englishman who made
at Ispahan "un assez long sejour." A Key is
affixed telling who the different characters are,
e.g. Cha-Abbas I. is Louis XIV.; Cha-Sephi I.,
Louis XV. The history begins with the death
of Cha-Abbas and continues through part of the
reign of Cha-Sephi I. It is somewhat satirical,
and contains more or less court gossip and
criticism of various personages, but is stupid
reading. The Conduct of Christians made the
sport of Infidels, in a letter from a Turkish mer-
chant at Amsterdam to the Grand Mufti at Con-
stantinople on occasion of . . . the late scandalous
quarrel among the clergy [by Kora Selym Oglan,
pseud.], London, 1717, is a satirical pseudo-
letter. Milk for Babes, Meat for Strong Men,
and Wine for Petitioners, being a Comical, Sar-
castical, Theological Account of a late Election at
1 Cf. App. B, I., No. 37, p. 278.

202 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

Bagdad for Cailiff of that City. Faithfully Trans-
lated from the Arabick and Collated with the most
Authentick Original Manuscripts By the Great,
Learned and Most Ingenious Alexander the Cop-
persmith [W. Boles ?] . . . second edition, Cork,
1731, is a worthless political satire. The Ori-
ental Chronicles of the Times; being the transla-
tion of a Chinese manuscript supposed to have
been written by Confucius the Sage [a satirical
account of events in 1784-1785 in defense of
C. J. Fox], London (1785), is arranged in chap-
ters and verses like the Old Testament and is a
feeble effort. The Trial and execution of the
Grand Mufti, From an ancient Horskian manu-
script found in the Cathedral of Rochester, London
(1795?), is a satire on S. Horsley, Bishop of
Rochester. A Brief and Merry History of
Great Britain Containing an account of the reli-
gious customs, etc., . . . of the people written
originally in Arabick [by Ali Mohammed Hadji,
pseud.]. Faithfully rendered into English by
A. H. [A. Hillier], London (1710?), is a carp-
ing and coarse diatribe on English manners and
life, with rare references to the superiority of
Eastern ways, in the manner of the Turkish
Spy, but far inferior.

THE SATIRIC GROUP 203

Smollett's political satire, the History and
Adventures of an Atom (1769) ,l is a pretended
account of Japanese events as chronicled by a
personified atom, who, by means of ridiculing
the Japanese people, actually satirizes the Eng-
lish, e.g. in the description of the Council's going
to sleep while discussing the defense of the
nation from foreign invaders; or that of the
councilor who endeavoured to make a speech
and could only cackle. Smollett's introduction
is picturesque. He imagines himself meeting
"an old maid in black Bombazine," the adminis-
tratrix of Nathaniel Peacock. She gives him
Peacock's manuscript, which recounts how the
atom appeared to Peacock and told him of its
experiences in Japan. The book as a whole is
of trifling value, occasionally humorous or
bitterly sarcastic, and often coarse.2 Defoe's
System of Magic (1726) 3 contains the Story of
Ali Abrahazen and the Devil and the Story
of the Arabian Magician in Egypt* Finally,

1 Cf. App. B, I., No. 58 (a), p. 285.

2 Cf . The Works of Lord Byron . . . edited ... by
E. H. Coleridge, London, New York, 1899, Poetry,
Vol. II., p. 40, n.f.

3 Cf. App. B, I., No. 5 (c), p. 270.

4 In Novels and Miscellaneous Works of Daniel Defoe,
Oxford, London, 1840, Vol. XII., pp. 101-135 and 154-181.

204 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

The Bramine's Journal by Laurence Sterne,
an unpublished manuscript now in the British
Museum, is an interesting instance of the utili-
zation of the oriental disguise.1

Enough has been said to illustrate the ten-
dency in England to use oriental fiction for the
purpose of social and political satire. In France
such satire was frequently combined with parody
of the rambling, complicated structure of many
oriental tales, e.g. the frame-tale; and also with
ridicule of the "oriental" style and diction. In
England there was almost no parody of the
narrative form of the oriental tale. Criticism
tended rather to parody of the oriental diction
and to frank mockery of the entire genre.

In one translation from the French the satire
is purely social: Marmontel's Soliman II.2

1 Cf . App. A, pp. 257, 258, post. Swift's descriptive
satirical poem, The Virtues of Sid Harriet the Magician's
Rod, likewise uses oriental disguise.

2 Cf. App. B, I., No. 54 (a), p. 284. It became popu-
lar also in dramatic form, The Sultan or a Peep into the
Seraglio, a Farce in two Acts, by Isaac Bickerstaffe, first
acted 1775; printed, 1784, 1786, 1787. Another of
Marmontel's works, — not a tale, but a comedie-ballet, —
called Zemire et Azor, formed the basis of a popular comic
opera, Selima and Azor a Persian Tale, with music by
Thomas Linley, Sr., London [1776]. It is a version of
the story of Beauty and the Beast.

THE SATIRIC GROUP 205

(1764). This story, one of the cleverest of all
Marmontel's Contes Moraux, recounts briefly the
conquest of the great sultan by a pretty Euro-
pean slave, Roxalana, — a conquest so com-
plete that her "little, turned-up nose" over-
throws the laws of the empire. In the original
preface the author writes: "I proposed to
myself to display the folly of those who use
authority to bring a woman to reason; and I
chose for an example a sultan and his slave, as
being two extremes of power and dependence." 1
When the story opens, Soliman, afflicted with
ennui, demands in place of the "soft docility" 2
found in his Eastern women, the charms of
"hearts nourished in the bosom of liberty."
Three European slaves are therefore brought to
his seraglio. The first, Elmira, is beautiful and
affectionate; the second, Delia, has a charming
voice; with each Soliman is content for a brief
time. The third is the madcap Roxalana, who
expostulates against the restraints of the se-
raglio with such vivacity that, despite her lack

1 Quoted in Moral Tales by M. Marmontel. Translated
from the French . . . New York, 1813, Vol. I.

2 Quotations that follow are from Marmontel's Moral
Tales Selected ... by George Saintsbury, London, 1895.

206 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

of regular beauty, her piquant charm "discon-
certs the gravity" of Soliman. "But the great,
in his situation, have the resource of silence ; and
Soliman, not knowing how to answer her, fairly
walked off, concealing his embarrassment under
an air of majesty." At another time, he says:
"But, Roxalana, do you forget who I am, and
who you are?" -"Who you are and who I
am? You are powerful, I am pretty; and so
we are even." She continues to laugh at him,
to do exactly as she pleases, and to entertain
him with clever satire on European ways and
Eastern customs. Finally, in order to im-
press her, he allows her to see him in all his
glory, receiving ambassadors. But the effect on
Roxalana is startling. "Get you gone out of
my sight," she says to him. . . . "Is this your
art of love ? Glory and grandeur, the only good
things . . . are reserved for you alone, and you
would have me love you ! . . . If my lover had
but a hut, I would share his hut with him and
be content. He has a throne; I will share his
throne or he is no lover of mine. If you think
me unworthy to reign over the Turks, send me
back to my own country where all pretty
women are sovereigns." There is nothing for

THE SATIRIC GROUP 207

Soliman to do but to marry this extraordinary
slave "in contempt of the laws of the sultans."
Among the translations from the French
showing mingled social and literary satire, Vol-
taire's tales 1 take precedence, notably The Black
and the White; The White Bull; The Princess of
Babylon; Memnon the Philosopher; and Baba-
bec. The scenes of part of Voltaire's Travels of
Scarmentado are laid in the East. The Princess
of Babylon may be taken to illustrate Voltaire's
method. The aged Belus, so the story begins,
"thought himself the first man upon earth; for
all his courtiers told him so, and his historians
proved it." An oracle had ordained that the
hand of his daughter, the surpassingly beautiful
Formosanta, should be given only to the prince
who could bend the bow of Nimrod and kill a
ferocious lion. At a gorgeous tournament three
kings strove in vain. Suddenly a handsome
youth appeared, riding on an unicorn and bear-
ing a phoenix on his wrist. He bent the bow,
saved the life of one of his rivals, sent a love
poem to the princess, cut off the lion's head,
gracefully drew its teeth, replaced them with
magnificent diamonds, and gave the trophy to
1 Cf. App. B, I., No. 39, pp. 279, 281.

208 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

his phoenix. "Beautiful bird," said he, "carry
this small homage and lay it at the feet of For-
mosanta." The great admiration and curiosity
aroused, were increased by his sudden depar-
ture on receiving news of his father's mortal
illness. After this opening scene, the rest of
the story recounts the wanderings of the princess
through almost all the known countries of Asia
and Europe in search of the stranger, until they
are finally reunited. The extravagant plot, in-
cident, and diction of the earlier oriental tales
are entertainingly parodied, and the travels of
the princess and her lover give a good oppor-
tunity for keen satire on European customs and
ideas. For instance, in one country the princess
finds that birds also meet in a grove to worship
God, and that they have some parrots that
preach wonderfully well. Voltaire's satire strikes
the hypocrisy of self-seeking clergy, the frivolity
of "at least one hundred thousand" Parisians,
and the wickedness of inquisitors who burned
their victims "for the love of God." With
satire in one hand and praise in the other, he
commends reason in the Germans, good govern-
ment among the English, and ideal government
in Russia, which he calls the Cimmerians' land,

THE SATIRIC GROUP 209

probably meaning that ideal government is yet
in Cimmerian darkness.

The Black and the White, a distinct and
clever parody on oriental stories and fairy
tales, recounts the passion of Rustan for a prin-
cess of Cashmire, who proves to be imaginary.
He goes through marvelous adventures under
the guidance of a good genius, "the White,"
and an evil genius, "the Black." But in the
end he awakes out of an hour's sleep to find
that he has dreamed all his adventures, includ-
ing the death of his princess and his own mortal
wound. " Take heart," said Topaz ; " you never
were at Kaboul; . . . the princess cannot be
dead, because she never was born ; and you are
in perfect health." The White Bull is a similar
satire on oriental stories and fairy tales, and also
on the miracles of the Old Testament and igno-
rant worship. The White Bull is the meta-
morphosed Nebuchadnezzar, who receives human
form at the last and marries the princess of
Egypt. Other characters are the Witch of En-
dor, Jonah's whale, Balaam's ass, and the serpent
of Eden. Memnon the Philosopher is a satire on
the vanity of attempting to be a perfect philoso-
pher. Bababec is a sketch, mocking the folly

210 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

of religious fanatics by describing the Fakir who
becomes famous and thinks himself religious be-
cause he tortures himself with nails, in contrast
with the wisdom of men who live useful, sensi-
ble lives.1 The Travels of Scarmentado, a satire
on persecution for conscience' sake, recounts one
incident that recalls The Female Captive (cf.
p. 50, ante). The hero hears a fair Circassian
say "Alia, Ilia, Alia" so tenderly that he thinks
the words are expressions of love, and repeats
them in his turn. He is accused of having be-
come a Turk by saying those words, and escapes
only with a fine. He flees to Persia. In his
own words: "On my arrival at Ispahan, the
people asked me whether I was for white or
black mutton? I told them that it was a
matter of indifference to me, provided it was
tender. It must be observed that the Persian
empire was at that time split into two factions,
that of the white mutton and that of the black.
The two parties imagined that I had made a
jest of them both; so that I found myself en-
gaged in a very troublesome affair at the gates

1 R. Cambridge's poem, The Fakeer, a Tale, first pub-
lished in 1756, is admittedly based on Voltaire. Cham-
bers, English Poets, London, 1810, Vol. XVIII., p. 288.

THE SATIRIC GROUP 211

of the city, and it cost me a great number of sequins
to get rid of the white and the black mutton."

In all these tales — even those that are ap-
parently written for mere amusement — Vol-
taire's genius, masterly command of his material,
and intense hatred of hypocrisy and injustice
give to his satire a keen and penetrating quality
which at once differentiates it from the com-
paratively care-free and superficial fun of Mar-
montel, Caylus, Bougeant, and Hamilton.

The three last named are the only other
French satirists of any consequence whose
works were translated into English in this
period. The Oriental Tales (1745) l of Caylus
is a good parody of the collections of oriental
stories. The frame-tale, itself a satire upon
the interminable method of story within story,
is briefly as follows: Hudjadge, King of Persia,
though gentle by nature, grows tyrannical from
insomnia. He commands his jailer on pain of
death to find a story-teller who can lull him to
sleep. The jailer's beautiful daughter Morad-
bak offers herself somewhat as Scheherazade
does in the Arabian Nights, and succeeds so
admirably that the sultan sleeps in peace, re-

1 Cf. App. B, I., No. 36, p. 278.

212 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

gains his temper, and marries her. The first
tale she tells is the appropriate History of Dakia-
nos and the Seven Sleepers, and the king, " whose
eyes had begun to close during the recital, . . .
came to himself when she had ceased speaking.
'I am satisfied,' said he; ... 'I listened with
some attention to the beginning of the history,
but I did not interest myself much for thy
little dog, and I was almost asleep with Jem-
likha, as if I had been in his cavern; therefore,
I know not much of what passed afterwards.' —
'If your majesty has the least curiosity ... I
will begin . . . again.' — 'No, no/ said the
king, 'I have enough for the first time.' " After
another tale "the sultan . . . had appeared
very wide awake all the time, though he might
with reason have dropt asleep at some parts of
it." Caylus succeeded only too well with his
parody; most of his stories are decidedly
soporific. A few familiar tales, such as the
Seven Sleepers, and some entertaining stories
like Jahia and Meimoune, break the otherwise
uniform monotony. For oriental colouring we
find the usual references to Mohametan legend:
the mountain of Kaf , which surrounds the world
and is composed of one emerald ; the angel Isra-

THE SATIRIC GROUP 213

phil ; magical flights ; genii and monsters ; devout
heroes; Solomon's ring; a treasure-cave access-
ible to an old dervish by means of his magic
candlestick ; and curious riddles like those in the
Persian Tales. The descriptions are fantastic,
extravagant, and occasionally coarse. Though
the Oriental Tales is said to have been based
upon genuine oriental manuscripts, it shows few
traces of any such source, and is of value chiefly
as exemplifying the tendency towards parody.

The Wonderful Travels of Prince Fan-Feredin,
in the country of Arcadia, interspersed with obser-
vations historical, geographical, physical, critical,
and moral. Translated from the original French
of Guillaume Hyacinthe Bougeant, Northampton,
n. d.,1 is an entertaining parody on the heroic
romances by name, e.g. Astrea, Palmerin, etc.,
and on the fairy tales, with occasional satirical
remarks on the oriental tales as well.

One of the most popular of all the parodies
and satires that followed so rapidly on the
heels of the extravagant pseudo-translations in
France was Fleur d'Epine, by Count Anthony
Hamilton, the author of the Memoirs of Count
Grammont. The English version, Thorn-Flower,

1 Cf. App. B, I., No. 32, pp. 277, 278.

214 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

1760,1 lost much of the wit and charm of Hamil-
ton's style, and yet kept, of course, the humour of
situation and narrative. How Hamilton began
to write these tales, half earnest, half satirical, is
quite in keeping with their light and entertain-
ing character. "The conversation happened to
turn in a company in which he was present on
the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, which were
just published; every one highly commended
the book ; many seemed to hint at the difficulty
of writing that species of composition. 'Noth-
ing can be more easy,' replied Count Hamilton,
'and as a proof of it I will venture to write a
Circassian tale after the manner of the Arabian
Nights' Entertainments on any subject which you
can mention.' — ' Fiddlesticks ! ' (Tarare) replied
the other. — 'You have hit it,' said Count Hamil-
ton; 'and I promise you that I shall produce a
tale in which Fiddlestick shall be the principal
hero.' In a few days he finished this tale, which
he called Fleur d'Epine. It was much read and
admired in Paris." 2 The popularity is not sur-

1 Translated also as May-Flower, a Circassian Tale,
second edition, Salisbury . . . London, 1796. Cf. App.B,
I., No. 51, pp. 283, 284.

2 Quoted in The Cabinet of Irish Literature ... by
Charles A. Read. . . . London, 1880, Vol. I., p. 94, n. 2.

THE SATIRIC GROUP 215

prising, for the story is an exceedingly clever
imitation — and parody — of its extravagant
predecessors. The author pretends that it is
one of the Arabian Nights1 Entertainments, and
hi the introductory scene puts into the mouth
of Dinarzade some capital mockery of the long-
winded confusion of some of her sister Schehera-
zade's tales. Throughout, as in Hamilton's
other tales, the interruptions and comments
by the audience form comic interludes. Hamil-
ton has caught the manner of the earlier stories
admirably, and heightens it in ostensible seri-
ousness just enough to bring it within the pale
of ridicule. To say that his story is located
far in the East is not sufficient. He proceeds
to say exactly how far: "two thousand four
hundred and fifty leagues from here." His
princess, like her prototypes, is superlatively
fair; but, moreover, her eyes are so brilliant
that men die from her glance as if struck by
lightning, and the artist who paints her portrait
is obliged to wear smoked glasses. The intro-
duction of the hero is farcical. He is a disguised
prince, and when asked by the caliph what his
name is, startles the whole court by replying,
"'Tarare!' (Fiddlestick!) 'Tarare!' says the

216 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

caliph; 'Tarare!' say all the counselors;
'Tarare!' says the Chancellor. 'I ask you,'
says the caliph, ' what is your name ? ' — 'I
know it well, Sire,' he replies. — 'Well, then,'
says the caliph. — ' Tarare ! ' says the other,
making a bow. . . . 'And why are you named
Tarare?' — 'Because that is not my name.'
'And how so?' says the caliph. — 'It is be-
cause I have dropped my name to assume this
one,' says he. — ' Nothing could be clearer,'
says the caliph, 'and yet it would have taken
me more than a month to find it out.' " The
characterization is purposely colourless, as in
the parodied tales. Yet there is occasionally a
clever bit of character analysis, such as the
account of May-Flower's sudden interest in her
rival. In the use of magic, Hamilton's fancy
runs riot side by side with his keen sense of the
ridiculous; here his parody reaches its highest
point. One of the tasks set the hero is the theft
from an old witch of the "sounding mare."
That remarkable creature carried a golden bell
on every hair, and thus made "ravishing music."
The ingenious Tarare silenced this music by fill-
ing each bell with a kind of glue, mounted the
mare with May-Flower, and fled from the pursu-

THE SATIRIC GROUP 217

ing sorceress. The latter nearly succeeded in
coming up with them, when at the last desper-
ate moment, "Sonante," the mare, shook her
left ear three times. The prince found in it a
little stone, which he threw over his left shoulder.
Instantly and just in time to save them there
arose out of the ground a protecting wall, only
sixty feet high, but so long that one could see
neither the beginning nor the end. Other diffi-
culties in the hero's path consisted of the ani-
mals that opposed his passage through the
forest. "One would say that these accursed
beasts knew his purpose, for in place of taking
pains to come at him, they merely spread out
to right and left; three hydras, ten rhinoce-
roses, and some half dozen of griffons, gazed
upon his progress. He knew the rules of war
well enough; so, after having examined the situ-
ation and their appearance, he saw their design,
and since the sides were not equal, he had re-
course to stratagem." One marvelous event
is piled upon another until the author breaks
out into an apostrophe : " Oh ! how great a
help are enchantments in the denouement of an
intrigue or end of a tale !"
Another of Count Hamilton's stories, Le

218 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

Better* half parody, half imitation of the fairy
tales, incidentally pokes fun at the oriental
tales, too. The fair heroine, Alie, insane with
love, imagines that she is Scheherazade in the
Thousand and One Nights, and that she must
at once tell a tale. In the midst of her soliloquy
she falls asleep, to be awakened by her father,
who is somewhat startled to have her address
him as "Great Commander of the Faithful!"
The Ram is an enchanted prince who tells a
tale to his master, the giant, beginning abruptly :
"'After the white fox was wounded, the queen
did not fail to visit him.' 'Friend Ram,' said
the giant, interrrupting him, 'I do not under-
stand that at all. If you would begin at the
beginning, you would give me pleasure; these
tales that begin in the middle only confuse 2
my imagination.' — 'Very well/ said the Ram.
'I consent, against the usual custom, to put
each event in its place: the beginning of my
story shall be at the commencement of my
recital.'" Later, when the story-teller follows
the conventional method in leaving some of his

1 The Ram, in Select Tales. . . . Translated from the
French . . . London, 1760.
2"Embrouiller."

THE SATIRIC GROUP 219

personages on a magic island at a critical junc-
ture, the giant again objects, and forbids him to
leave the island until he has quite finished their
story. Of talismans, Hamilton says: "Great
was the virtue of ancient talismans, and even
greater the faith of those that believed in them."
He describes extravagant emotions thus: "Joy,
astonishment, and anxiety were simultaneously
depicted on the face of the druid, though it is
rather difficult to depict them all at once on
the same face."

Les Quatre Facardins,1 the last in order of
composition of Hamilton's tales, is the least
interesting. As the author confesses, in his
rhymed preface, one who like himself sets out
jokingly to imitate and to make fun of such
absurdities ends by becoming equally absurd.
That is true of The Four Facardins. No ori-
ental tale could be more extravagant in plot
and incident. The various adventures of the
four princes of the same name, Facardin, are
so utterly tangled that the reader, like the giant
in Le Better, feels as if his imagination were

1 The Four Facardins, in Select Tales . . . translated
from the French, London, 1760. Cf. also M. G. Lewis:
Romantic Tales, London, 1808.

220 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

becoming "embrouille'e." It is not surprising
that the author left the story unfinished. The
frame-tale begins hopefully to recount how
Prince Facardin of Trebizonde tells his adven-
tures to Sultan Schariar, Scheherazade, and
Dinarzade ; but, after the other Facardins begin
their own stories, the main thread would be
hard to follow, were that necessary. Their
various adventures include encounters with
lions, enchanters, giants, and fair ladies, and
are enlivened with fanciful descriptions, —
sometimes in questionable taste, — and occa-
sional humour. On the whole The Four Facar-
dins is not nearly so entertaining as Hamilton's
other tales.

The only English writer who made a delib-
erate attempt to parody the structure of the
oriental tales was Horace Walpole. His Hiero-
glyphic Tales (1785) 1 are, as the postscript says,
"mere whimsical trifles, written chiefly for pri-
vate amusement; half a dozen copies only are
printed." But even though a mere skit, the
book is interesting as a straw to show which
way the wind was blowing. The Preface is a
rather clever satire on the pretentious, highly
1 Cf . App. B, I., No. 49 (6), p. 283.

THE SATIRIC GROUP 221

moralistic, and would-be scholarly prefaces to
oriental tales; and informs the reader that "the
Hieroglyphic Tales were undoubtedly written a
little before the creation of the world . . . and
preserved by oral tradition in the mountains
of Oampcraggi, an uninhabited island not yet
discovered." The seven short stories which
make up the book are somewhat similar to
Hamilton's. The scene of the first, A New
Arabian Nights' Entertainment, is laid in the
kingdom of Larbidel. "The other side of the
mountain was inhabited by a nation of whom
the Larbidellians knew no more than the
French nobility do of Great Britain, which they
think is an island that somehow or other may
be approached by land." The other stories are
also parodies : The King and his Three Daughters;
The Dice-box; The Peach in Brandy, a Milesian
Tale; Mi Li, a Chinese Fairy Tale; and a
Venetian Love-story of two black slaves who
prove to be dogs.

Walpole's tone of supercilious mockery to-
ward the oriental tales was typical of critical
opinion generally between the middle of the
century and the end of our period (c. 1786).
Preluded by Pope's ridicule of Ambrose Philips as

222 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

" The bard whom pilfer'd Pastorals renown,
Who Turns a Persian Tale for half-a-crown,"

such criticism found its best expression in
Goldsmith. The Citizen of the World (Letter
XXXIII.) ridicules authors who attempt "to
write in the true Eastern style, where nothing
is required but sublimity." Lien Chi is amused
to hear an English lady say : " Oh, for a history
of Aboulfaouris [sic], the grand voyager, of
genii, magicians, rocs, bags of bullets, giants,
and enchanters, where all is great, obscure, mag-
nificent, and unintelligible;" and even more
amused when an author in the company re-
joins : "I have written many a sheet of Eastern
tale myself . . . and I defy the severest critic
to say but that I have stuck close to the true
manner. I have compared a lady's chin to the
snow upon the mountains of Bomek ; a soldier's
sword to the clouds that obscure the face of
heaven. If riches are mentioned, I compare
them to the flocks that graze the verdant Tefflis ;
if poverty, to the mists that veil the brow of
mount Baku. I have used thee and thou upon
all occasions, I have described fallen stars, and
splitting mountains, not forgetting the little
Houris who make a pretty figure in every de-

THE SATIRIC GROUP 223

scription. But you shall hear how I generally
begin. ' Eben-ben-bolo, who was the son of
Ban, was born on the foggy summits of Ben-
derabassi. His beard was whiter than the
feathers which veil the breast of the Penguin;
his eyes were like the eyes of doves, when
washed by the dews of the morning; his hair,
which hung like the willow weeping over the
glassy stream, was so beautiful that it seemed
to reflect its own brightness; and his feet were
as the feet of a wild deer, which fleeth to the
tops of the mountains.' There, there, is the
true Eastern taste for you ; every advance made
towards sense is only a deviation from sound.
Eastern tales should always be sonorous, lofty,
musical, and unmeaning."

Except for the Arabian Nights, many of the
oriental tales that had appeared up to 1760-
1761, when Goldsmith wrote, or even up to the
date of Walpole's parody (1785), gave consider-
able provocation for such criticism. Indeed, to
a certain extent, the vogue of these tales was
another expression of the tendency more gro-
tesquely manifested in the current craze, like-
wise ridiculed, for Chinese domestic architecture
and house furnishings. "A few years ago/'

224 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

William Whitehead writes (World, No. 12,
1753), " everything was Gothic, now it is
Chinese." In 1754 William Lloyd describes a
country place decorated by "Chinese artists" : —

" The trav'ler with amazement sees
A temple, Gothic or Chinese ;
With many a bell and tawdry rag on,
And crested with a wooden dragon." 1

The World, No. 117, ridicules the "applause so
fondly given to Chinese decorations or to the
barbarous productions of a Gothic genius which
seems once more to threaten the ruin of ...
[Greek] . . . simplicity . . . [which is so] ...
superior." The same essay describes a visit
to Lady Fiddlefaddle's Chinese dressing-room.
She had thrown aside her grandfather's fine
Italian pictures for the sake of red dragons,
"pagods," and ugly monsters. Just as "the
Greek and Roman architecture are discarded for
the novelties of China . . . [so] Correggio is neg-
lected for gothic designs . . . and the tinsel of
a Burletta has more admirers than the gold of
Shakespeare." 2 It may be, Warton goes on to

1 Connoisseur, No. 135. Chalmers, English Poets,
London, 1810, Vol. XV., p. 81.

2 Warton, in Adventurer, No. 139. Cf. also World,
Nos. 26, 38, 59, 65, 205; Rambler, 82; Adventurer, 109;

THE SATIRIC GROUP 225

say, that an attempt to improve this state of
learning and taste will be thought "romantic
. . . and chimerical." The Connoisseur, No.
122, ridicules the faults of a man of fashion who
goes so far as to think the Bible to be "as ro-
mantic as the Alcoran." To a writer in the
World, No. 70, one redeeming quality in the
craze for oriental tales is the fact that some of
them "contain useful morals and well-drawn
pictures from common life." A later contribu-
tor to the same periodical, No. 121, writes to
the editor: "Among the many visions related
by your predecessors and contemporaries, the
writers of periodical essays, I remember few but
what have been in the oriental style." And he
adds a sentence which may be taken as epitomiz-
ing the critical opinion of his contemporaries:
"For my own part, I am neither Dervise nor
Brachman, but a poet and a true Christian."

Connoisseur, 65, 73; Mirror, 17; Lounger, 79; and Sir
William Chambers' s Designs of Chinese Buildings, etc.,
London, 1757.

CHAPTER V

LITERARY ESTIMATE

UPON a general survey of the four groups
of oriental tales described in the preceding
chapters, one is impressed by the exceedingly
diversified nature of the collection, and — para-
doxical though the statement may seem — by
the presence of a sufficient number of common
qualities to give the collection as a whole a
distinctive character: it is "the oriental tale in
England in the eighteenth century." In form
this fiction includes within its wide range the
frame-tale, in which stories — sometimes in
letter-form — are inclosed ; isolated apologues
and other short tales used to point the moral of
an Addisonian or Johnsonian essay; fantastic
tales in which adventure is everything; tales
equally fantastic but coloured by satire; and
tales with the thinnest possible thread of plot
to sustain the predominant satiric, moralistic, or
philosophic purpose. The characterization is
uniformly slight, and tends toward more or less
abstract types. The scene is laid in the Orient,

226

LITERARY ESTIMATE 227

from Egypt to China, or in Europe visited by
Orientals; and is given a picturesque back-
ground of strange Eastern customs, sometimes
enriched by allusions to religious or philosophical
beliefs, often by lavish use of magic and enchant-
ment. Oriental or pseudo-oriental nomencla-
ture aids in producing the desired effect of
remoteness. The language is usually coloured *)
by oriental phraseology, and is frequently — but-'
not necessarily — figurative and inflated. As / ,
might be expected, the amount of local colour/ ' (Y
the richness of detail, and the truth to oriental
manners and places are greater as the stories\
approximate genuine Eastern fiction like the/' ^
Arabian Nights. At the other end of the scale,
in thoroughly Anglicized oriental tales, such as
Rasselas and Nourjahad, the background is pale
and shadowy, details are sparse, and references
to Eastern places and customs are rare. But t
in all this fiction there is a distinctly exotic /
flavour, distilled through the medium of eigh- | v
teenth-century ideas.

The general course of development of the
genre in England followed the lines of the simi-
lar French movement, but with characteristi-
cally different emphasis. In France the move-

228 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

ment — preluded by the pseudo-oriental satire,
The Turkish Spy — was initiated by highly
imaginative oriental translations contemporane-
ous with the fairy tales of Perrault. It was
continued by imitations in which qualities
from both oriental tales and fairy tales were
blended, — notably extravagant invention and
magic; by literary parodies aimed at form and
style; and by social satires, ranging from com-
ments on manners to philosophic criticism of
life. Finally, the natural decline of the oriental y
tale as a genre, together with that of the fairy
tale, was hastened by the weight of extreme
license on the one hand and of moralistic didac-
ticism on the other. In England, the Arabian
Nights and its companions were warmly wel-
comed, but there was no sudden efflorescence
of imaginative and fanciful fiction as there had
been in France. English writers at first con-
tented themselves, as far as imaginative tales
were concerned, with translating from the
French. It is worth noting that they did not
translate the fairy tales of Perrault until 1729. *
The blending of the fairy tales with the oriental

1 Cf . (a) The Blue Fairy Book . . . edited with an Intro-
duction by Andrew Lang . . . [ Large Paper] , London, 1889.

LITERARY ESTIMATE 229

tales in France was one of the most striking
characteristics of the movement, and the com-
parative lack of the fairy element in England
limited, in so far, the initial scope of the English
movement. But in France, after the first
furore, no new kinds of purely imaginative ori-
ental stories or fairy tales appeared; while hi
England, from time to time throughout the cen-
tury, imaginative oriental tales were written,
including realistic stories, a tragic romance,
Charoba (translated from a seventeenth-cen-
tury French version), and a tale of terror,

Introduction: "Though published in 1697, Perrault's
Contes de ma Mere 1'Oye do not seem to have been
Englished till 1729. A version is advertised in a news-
paper of that year, but no copy exists in the British
Museum."

(6) English Fairy Tales, collected by Joseph Jacobs . . .
third edition . . . New York, 1898, p. 229. Notes. "In
the middle of the last century the genius of Charles
Perrault captivated English and Scotch children. . . .
Cinderella and Puss-in-Boots . . . ousted Childe Row-
land, and Mr. Fox and Catskin. The superior elegance
and clearness of the French tales replaced the rude
vigour of the English ones. What Perrault began, the
Grimms completed. Tom Tit Tot gave way to Rum-
pelstilzchen. . . . The English Fairy Tale became a
melange confus of Perrault and the Grimms."

(c) The Countess D'Aulnoy's Tales of the Fairies was
translated in 1707.

230 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

Vathek. In both countries dramas, especially
farces, were based on this fiction.1

Satire in France — as suggested above —
followed two lines of development: the social
line inaugurated by Marana, and the literary
or parodic, — a natural reaction from the ex-
travagances of the imaginative tales. English
satire in oriental guise was chiefly social, occa-
sionally political, rarely parodic. The reaction
against the enthusiasm with which the oriental
tales had been greeted, was voiced not so much
in actual parody as in direct ridicule or critical
disapproval. Pope's friend, Bishop Atterbury,
was not alone in thinking "the Arabian Tales"
"so extravagant, monstrous, and dispropor-
tioned" that they "gave a judicious eye pain." 2
Pope's own gibe at the hack-writer who could
"turn a Persian tale for half-a-crown " was
echoed fifty years later by Goldsmith: "Mr.

1 Cf. pp. 76, n. 2; 96, n. 1; and 204, n. 2, ante. Dramas
based more or less on oriental history appeared from
time to time, e.g. Hughes's Siege of Damascus (1720);
D. Mallet's Mustapha (1739); Johnson's Irene (1749);
Hodson's Zoraida (1780); A. Dow's Zingis, a Tragedy,
new edition (1773); and translations of Voltaire's Ma-
homet, Zara, and Orphan of China. Cf . Dr. Hoops, Pres-
ent Problems (App. B, II., No. 33, p. 300).

2 Works of A. Pope . . . edited ... by ... Rev. W.
L. Bowles, London, 1806, Vol. VIII., pp. 110, 112.

LITERARY ESTIMATE 231

Tibs [is] a very useful hand; he writes receipts
for the bite of a mad dog and throws off an
eastern tale to perfection." * What there was
of parody was directed against the so-called
oriental diction and phraseology, while in
France parody was aimed chiefly at the narra-
tive form and the extravagance of incident.
On the whole, English satire had a narrower
range and followed chiefly the line of light and
cheerful humour best exemplified in The Citizen
of the World. French satire, more pervasive
and more penetrating, expressed — especially
when touched by the genius of Voltaire and
Montesquieu — something of the deep unrest
of France in the eighteenth century, the era
before the Revolution. Even the contes philo-
sophiques are tinged with satire. The typical
English writer of philosophic oriental tales, on
the contrary, dwelt in an imaginary country of
pure speculation, and entered the world of fact
only for the purpose of moralizing.

The emphasis which in France was thrown\
upon satire fell in England upon philosophy and j

1 Citizen of the World . . . edited by A. Dobson . . .
London, 1893, p. 121, note to p. 141,1.25: "Mr. Tibs
(is) a different person, by the way, from the inimitable
little Beau."

232 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

morals. From The Vision of Mirza to Rasse-
las; from Parnell's Hermit to Miss Edgeworth's
Murad the Unlucky; throughout the entire
period the two tendencies were steadily promi-
nent. At the outset, Addison and Steele set
the example of wresting the new imaginative
oriental fiction just received from France out of
its original shape into something more conform-
able to their sincere ideas of worthy literature.
Dr. Johnson and many others, especially in the
periodical essays, intensified this didactic tradi-
tion. In literary merit the philosophic tales
take precedence over the moralistic, though the
latter are far more numerous. Enough has been
said in the preceding chapters to make clear the
character of the two groups. The questions at
present of greater importance in our discussion
are the reasons why the genre in England fol-
lowed the philosophic and moralistic tendencies
and the other lines of development mentioned
in the preceding paragraphs. How may we ac-
count for the presence and more or less general
popularity of this fiction in England during the
eighteenth century ? Why were the imaginative
tales so soon diverted to didactic purposes?
The environment into which the Arabian

LITERARY ESTIMATE 233

Nights and the Persian Tales came was that of
an age which expressed itself most naturally in
rationalistic prose and satiric verse. The moral-
izing tendency, characteristic also of the eigh-
teenth century on the continent, has been called
a fundamental instinct of the British character;
and at that time was so powerful and wide-
spread as to colour all English literature. Even
Fielding did not escape, much less the writers
of these Eastern stories. The environment
proved stronger than the new organism. Too
exotic to become easily acclimated, such tales
were regarded as entertaining trifles, to be
tolerated seriously only when utilized to point
a moral. The moralizing tendency and the
rationalistic mood were two barriers opposed to
the free development of imaginative oriental
fiction. A third obstacle was the deference
shown to the canons of French classicism. All
things French were welcomed, but only those
sanctioned by Boileau found lasting and seri-
ous consideration ; and the sober second thought
of Augustan criticism was thus strengthened in
its disdain of the oriental tale. Furthermore, a
barrier existed in the insularity of English life
and thought. Aside from her connection with

234 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

France, England was surprisingly insular in
the early eighteenth century. Literary England
was confined, in large measure, to London alone,
because of the practical difficulties of communi-
cating with the country. Roads were bad,
journeys difficult and perilous. Foreign travel
was by no means so common as later in the
century. The East was indeed the "Far East,"
chiefly used as a figure of speech for fabulous
wealth or excessive tyranny. Usually the con-
trast was drawn in favour of England. Dyer,
in his poem, The Fleece, even praises the happy
English sheep in comparison with the less
favoured sheep of other lands. Mohammedan-
ism was regarded as an imposture and Buddhism /
was practically unknown. It was not until the ^
victories of Clive in India and the era of expan-
sion under the elder Pitt that England took any
vital interest in the Orient, — an interest first
expressed in literature by direct translations
from oriental language in the last quarter of
the century. In the earlier decades, England,
on the whole prosperous and peaceful under
'Walpole's long rule, was satisfied with her in-
sularity; a feeling voiced by Shenstone in the
>oem entitled, Declining an invitation to visit

LITERARY ESTIMATE 235

foreign Countries, he takes Occasion to intimate
the Advantages of his own*

But, even had there been no such obstacles
to overcome in the environment, a barrier to
the free imaginative development of the oriental
tale would have existed in the character of the
first eighteenth-century translations of oriental
fiction. They lacked too frequently not only
the graphic detail, which in accounts of far
distant lands fascinates the reader, but also
the deeper elements of characterization that
make the whole world kin and are the most
potent means of breaking down superficial
barriers between alien peoples. When Galland
prepared his version of the Arabian Nights for
European readers, he omitted not only the
coarseness of the original, but also many of its
interesting minutiae, details which give to our
later versions — Burton's and Payne's, for in-
stance — the charm of good tales of travel, and
produce in the reader the vivid sense of actually
being in the picturesque Orient. The French
and English successors of Galland followed him
in this respect and fell short even of his achieve-

1 Shenstone's Poems, in Chalmers, English Poets . . .
London, 1810, Vol. XIII., p. 272.

236 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

ment. Hardly any English writers until past
the middle of the century knew or apparently
Beared to know the East well, either through
travel or through books; hence the pale and
colourless quality of their oriental fiction.1 Beck-
ford was the first to introduce much picturesque
detail, and in so doing anticipated the methods
of Moore, Southey, Byron, and their successors.
The lack of vivid descriptions, however, was
far less serious than the presence of alien ele-
ments without the saving grace of deep human
interest. Unlike Gothic legend, Celtic poem, or
English ballad, the oriental tale formed no inti-
mate part of the national heritage. Something
latent or sleeping in the nature of the English
people was roused during this century by a
sudden revival of interest in things their ances-
tors had loved and lived with; and Percy's
Reliques, Walpole's Castle of Otranto, the Poems
of Ossian, struck a responsive chord. But the
oriental tale was alien; and incident, atmos-
phere, fancies, understood and liked by Eastern
listeners, seemed too grotesque and incredible

1 Dr. Johnson (Rambler, No. 122) commends Knolles's
History of the Turks, but declares the subject foreign
and uninteresting, a remote and barbarous nation "of
which none desire to be informed."

LITERARY ESTIMATE 237

to make more than a limited appeal to un-
traveled English readers/ They welcomed,
rather, with characteristic heartiness the homely,
realistic background of Defoe's stories. If the
oriental tale had emphasized the more funda-
mental elements of human character — the pas-
sions of love, hate, ambition, revenge — in addi-
tion to the spirit of adventure and delight in **
the picturesque and the mysterious, then what-
ever was alien in setting or incident would have
been no barrier. For instance, the oriental
custom most frequently alluded to by English
writers throughout the century is the suttee.
They were impressed not only by the outlandish
barbarity of the custom, but also by the uni-
versal ideal of supreme fidelity in love and
heroic devotion to religious belief. Witness also
the strong appeal made to-day to Western im-
aginations by modern versions of Afghan ballads
afire with passion; or by romantic legends like
that of the Persian sculptor, Farhad, and the
Princess Schirin.1

1 Persia, Past and Present . . . by A. V. W. Jackson . . .
New York, 1906, p. 226. Cf. also The Power of Bible
Poetry, by J. H. Gardiner in Atlantic Monthly, September,
1906 (Vol. XCVIII., pp. 384-394).

238 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

But in spite of all these barriers to the free
imaginative development of this fiction, — the
rationalistic classicism; the moralistic, philo-
sophic, and satiric moods; the insularity of the
English people; and the alien characteristics of
the oriental tale, — nevertheless, the presence
and the genuine if limited popularity of this
fiction in eighteenth-century England are un-
deniable facts. The reasons behind these facts
will bring us to the question of the ultimate /
significance of the genre as a manifestation of V

, the Romantic spirit.

The first and obvious reason for the welcome

> given the oriental tale by the London of Pope
and Addison — despite Bishop Atterbury's cen-
sure — was that it came from France. Es-
pecially since 1660, French influence had
prevailed in England, French literary critics
were regarded as authoritative, and French
fashions in literature were followed. Since,
then, the vogue of the oriental tale was so great
in France, it was naturally echoed in England.
That the fairy tales — equally popular in
France — did not cross the Channel at that time
maybe due to the fact that Perrault drew directly
from French folk-lore, and hence made an espe-

LITERARY ESTIMATE 239

cial appeal to the French people; and that the
Countess D'Aulnoy and other aristocratic ladies
gave to the stories they retold from Straparola
a prestige only local. Moreover, the fairy tales
— charming as they are — lack the quality
possessed by the Arabian Nights, — what we
have called "the sense of reality in the midst
of unreality/' a quality particularly attractive
to English readers.

The same fact of French influence accounts
largely for the favourable reception given to the
Turkish Spy, and later to the Lettres Persanes.
The popularity of such oriental pseudo-letters in
England was a part of a general European ten-
dency.1 Similarly England had shared in a

1 Cf . The Literary Remains of John Evelyn . . . edited . . .
by William Upcott . . . second edition . . . London, 1834.
On p. xiii Evelyn's Tyrannus or the Mode (1661) is men-
tioned as a "very curious and rare pamphlet to be found
... in the second volume of the Evelyn papers," a pam-
phlet in which the author argues for the superiority of the
Persian fashion of dress over the English. Charles II.
adopted the costume for a short while, probably as a
result of Evelyn's reasoning. On pp. 141-167 is printed
Evelyn' s A Character of England as it was lately presented
in a letter to a nobleman of France (1651; third edition,
1659), a satiric jeu d' esprit, in which the author assumes
the guise of a Frenchman and gives a "character" of
England from the French point of view. He concludes :
" In summe, my Lord, I have found so many particulars

240 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

widely diffused interest in an analogous form
of satire; that of Boccalini's Ragguagli di Par-
naso, a type generally known and frequently
imitated throughout seventeenth-century Eu-
rope.1 Boccalini had imagined Apollo, king of
Parnassus, conducting discussions among his
courtiers, — men of genius from every nation
and age, — and passing criticism on political and
literary questions; Boccalini himself being the
reporter who brought these "Advices" from
Parnassus to Europe. The analogy between
such satire and that of Marana is striking. In
one sense Apollo and the departed shades, ob-
serving Europe from the remote regions of
mythology, were forerunners and equivalents of
the later learned Turkish spies, Persian travelers,
and Chinese philosophers from the Far East.2

--worthy of reproof . . . that to render you a veritable
account of England as it is at present I must pronounce
with the poet, — Difficile est satyram non scribere."

1 Cf . Trajano Boccalini's Einfluss auf die Englische
Literatur, by R. Brotanek, in Archiv fur das Studium der
neueren Sprachen u. Literaturen, Vol. CXI. (n. s. XI.),
1903; cf. also Spectator, No. 514, Steele's Vision of
Parnassus; Swift, Journal to Stella, Saturday, April 28th,
1711; and others.

2 At the present writing there is no proof for, or
against, a causal relation; it is possible that Boccalini
influenced Marana, but in the absence of satisfactory

LITERARY ESTIMATE 241

Another reason for the welcome given the
Arabian Nights and The Persian Tales is found
in connection with the history of the novel.
The elements of interest essential to great nar-
rative art are plot, character, and background.
Of these essentials it has been said that the
Sir Roger de Coverley papers possess two: ad-
mirable characterization and well-defined back- \S
ground; and that the absence of plot alone
denies to Sir Roger de Coverley the name of the
first English novel.1 Almost exactly contem-
porary with the De Coverley papers appeared
the Arabian Nights; and, in the light of what
has just been said, the auspicious reception of
these oriental tales gains new significance.
Stories of pure adventure, in fantastic and often
brilliant setting, sometimes emotional or senti-
mental, never strong in characterization —
they offered just that element of plot which

evidence I do not wish to imply anything more than
an interesting and suggestive analogy. Cf. P. Toldo.
Dell' Espion di Giovanni Paolo Marana e delle sue at-
tinenze con le Lettres Persanes del Montesquieu, in Giornale
Storico, Vol. XXIX., pp. 46-79; esp. 53; and Antonio
Belloni, in Vol. VII. of Storia Litteraria d' Italia . . . II
Seicento . . . Milano, 1898-1899, p. 374.

1 Cf. W. Raleigh, The English Novel . . . New York,
1904. Fifth edition, p. 120.

R

242 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

was lacking in the periodical sketches. The
plot, indeed, is frequently strong only in incident,
and is tangled in construction. Yet, in the Ara-
bian Nights, there are several tales that, in
certain respects, deserve to be called classical;
Ali Bdba and the Forty Thieves, or Zeyn Alas-
nam and the King of the Genii, for instance,
despite all their oriental decorations, are ad-
mirably simple and well-proportioned; and the
Arabian Nights, as a whole, is a treasure-house
of story perhaps unsurpassed in literature.
Nothing so rich in adventurous incident ap-
peared in England until Robinson Crusoe (1719) ;
and in plot nothing so well-constructed as some
of these tales until Fielding's masterpieces. His-
torians of English fiction have insufficiently
recognized the fact that the oriental tale was
one of the forms of literature that gave to the
[reading public in Augustan England the ele-
/ : ment of plot which, to a certain extent, supple-
/ | mented that of character, afforded by sketches
\ like the De Coverky papers. The English novel,
as a recent writer has pointed out in his admi-
rable outline of its history, is particularly rich
in the variety of elements assisting in its develop-
ment. Of the seventeenth century he writes:

LITERARY ESTIMATE 243

"The heroic romance died and left no issue.
And the influence that the century exercised on
the growth of pure fiction, the foundations it
laid for the coming novel, are to be sought, not
in the writers of romance, but in the followers
of other branches of literature, often remote
enough from fiction, in satirists and allegorists,
newspaper scribes and biographers, writers of
travel and adventure, and fashionable comic
playwrights." 1 Yet the translators of oriental
fiction in the early eighteenth century —
"writers of romance" in one sense though
they were — deserve a place among these di-
verse influences. The Arabian Nights was the
fairy godmother of the English novel.

But the love of story for the story's sake was
not the only or the chief reason for the wel-
come given the Arabian Nights and its imme-
diate successors. In France, the popularity of
these fantastic and marvelous stories, restless/Y,
in plot and exuberant in colour, had testified to
a truant desire to escape from the strict artistic
rules and classical ideals of masters like Boileau.
Conditions were similar in England. Pseudo- \
classicism was the natural literary ideal of the
1 W. Raleigh, op. tit., p. 109.

244 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

\ men gathered in the coffee-houses around Pope
and Addison. The rule of reason, of order, of
good sense, was unquestioned; and, to so keen
and clever a society, the satiric verse of Pope
was ideal poetry. But even the author of the
Essay on Criticism allowed his fancy to stray at
times beyond the well-defined limits of tradi-
tional art. He enjoyed the Arabian Tales, com-
mended them to his friend, Bishop Atterbury,1
and planned himself to write a "wild" Eastern
tale.2 Lady Montagu did much to excite and
to gratify curiosity concerning Turkish life by
her entertaining letters from Constantinople.3
Swift read the Arabian Nights and fairy tales.
He writes to Stella: "I borrowed one or two
idle books of Contes des Fees and have been

1 Works of A. Pope . . . edited by Rev. W. L. Bowles,
London, 1806, Vol. VIII., pp. 110-112; Vol, IX., p.
372, n.

2 Spence, op. tit., on p. 77, n. 2; p. 169. "After read-
ing the Persian Tales (and I had been reading Dryden's
Fables just before them) I had some thoughts of writing
a Persian Fable ; in which I should have given full loose
to description and imagination. It would have been a
very wild thing if I had executed it, but might not have
been unentertaining."

3 During her husband's embassy there, 1711-1718.
Letters and Works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu . . .
new edition, 2 vols., London, 1887. The date of the
first edition of Turkish Letters was 1763.

LITERARY ESTIMATE 245

reading them these two days, although I have
much business upon my hands." 1 Goldsmith
dreamed ardently of a journey to the Far East,2
and Dr. Johnson himself came somewhat under
the oriental spell. The men of the eighteenth
century were not devoid of passion and imagi-
nation; they were not without a love for the
country, though they liked the town far better;
they were not without an appreciation of nature,
though they preferred cultivated plains to "hor-
rid Alps"; but they considered it bad form to
express such feelings in polite society or in
serious literature. Oppressed by the bare and
hard rationalism of the day, people craved
more and more earnestly adequate food for
their imagination, their fancy, their emotion.
This hunger explains the growing interest in
varied fields of artistic activity: the popularity
of the new Italian operas and of Handel's
oratorios, the vogue of the bourgeois drama, the
interest in Hogarth's realistic art, and the appear-
ance of nature poetry like Thomson's Seasons.

1 Swift's Journal to Stella. A.D. 1710-171S, edited . . .
by F. Ryland, London, 1897, p. 327. Letter XL., Jan-
uary 26, 1711-1712.

2 Cf . numerous references in Oliver Goldsmith ... by
W. Irving. Hudson edition . . . New York, 1864.

246 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

To the general though gradual romantic ex-
pansion of outlook there are many witnesses;
and it is significant to note that the strand of
interest in the Orient is interwoven with other
romantic threads. As early as 1692, Sir Wil-
liam Temple shows interest in Norse poetry and
mythology, in Indian and Chinese life and art.1
Addison soon follows with his defense of Chevy
Chase; Ambrose Philips, the translator of the
Persian Tales, also edits old English ballads,
and Bishop Percy, toward the end of the
period, manifests a curious range of interest:
English ballads, Northern antiquities, Chinese
literature, etc.2 Similarly in France, Caylus,
Petis de la Croix, and Galland had been anti-
quarians as well as orientalists. In such a
widening of outlook the Romantic Movement
resembles the Renaissance.

The chief reason, then, for the popularity of
the oriental fiction was its romantic character.
No wonder that the growing demands of the

v — *"

1 Works of Sir William Temple, Bart., Vol. III., Lon-
don, 1757, pp. 304-393; Of heroic Virtue, pp. 430-472.
An essay upon Ancient and Modern Learning.

2 To this list other names might be added, e.g. that
of Clara Reeve, author of The Old English Baron and
editor of Charoba.

LITERARY ESTIMATE 247

reaction against pseudo-classicism found a cer-
tain satisfaction in these extraordinary tales,
which brought into the comparatively gray and
colourless life of Augustan England the fascinat-
ing marvels of oriental legend, encompassed,
even in the translations from the French, by
something of the magical atmosphere and
strange glamour of the East. It would be
as difficult as superfluous to analyze the
world-wide charm of these tales. The caliph
in disguise, wandering the streets of Bagdad
in search of adventure, appeals to the same
naive sense of delight that is excited by Richard
Coeur-de-Lion or Robin Hood. There is in I
most people at all times something of the child's
love of the marvelous. In the eighteenth cen-
tury a special reason for the popularity of these
tales lay in the fact that they offered to the >
reactionary spirit, always characteristic of ro-:
manticism, romantic themes and treatment,
and voiced the romantic mood. In varying
degree these stories show a love of adventure
and of mystery; a desire to excite the feelings
of surprise, horror, or delight; a child's joy in
the extravagant, the unusual, and the exotic;
and an equally childlike desire to achieve the;

248 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

apparently impossible. The Persian Tales is
tinged with sentimentalism ; Anglicized tales
such as Rasselas sound a decided note of sub-
jectivity and melancholy; Vathek is unreal and
"wild." It is interesting to find Horace Wai-
pole calling his Castle ofOtranto "so wild a tale,"
for just this quality of wildness in both the ori-
ental and the Gothic tale manifests romantic
longings. In the one there is the reactionary
desire to escape to the far-away, mysterious
East, — the remote in space ; in the other,
the desire to return to the Middle Ages, — the
remote in time; in both, the longing for
picturesque colouring, for magical atmosphere,
for strangeness, coupled sometimes with beauty,
sometimes with horror.

But, it may be said, the oriental tale is
romantic only in external qualities, and should
be classed as pseudo-romantic. Every romantic
revival passes through a stage of what may be
called pseudo-romanticism or, more accurately,
superficial romanticism, gradually deepening
and strengthening as it grows toward its cul-
mination. The movement known in literary v
history as the Romantic Movement in England
began almost imperceptibly early in the eigh-

LITERARY ESTIMATE 249

teenth century. Its sources were as diverse as
those of the English novel. If we take as the
highest standards of English romanticism the
picturesque, objective medisevalism of Scott;
the deep spirituality of Wordsworth; the in- /
tense subjectivity of Emily Bronte"; Shelley's
"cloudless clarity of light"; the strange beauty
ofJKeats's verse, — the sense of melancholy, of
mystery, of sympathy with sorrow found in all
great romantic poets, — then the beginnings of
English romanticism seem what they are, mere
beginnings, so remote from the great romantic
literature that the difference in degree amounts
to a difference in kind. From this point of
view, critical analysis, noting that the Gothic
tale and the oriental tale lack the more subtle
and essential elements of the romantic spirit,
justly regards them as romantic only in externals.
Yet romanticism is a relative term; and if
all that is not romantic in the highest sense be
dismissed as unromantic, there is great danger
of ignoring the gradual evolution of the pro-
founder elements of the romantic spirit and of
overlooking the genuine romanticism latent or
obscured in early romantic art. Critics of
classicism, who regard solely the highest forms

250 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

in which that literary tendency embodies itself,
often pay the penalty of losing perspective, of
disregarding evolution. If the great classics —
Homer, ^Eschylus, Virgil — be taken as the
norm, then works of the later Greek or Roman
periods, or the so-called "classic" period in
France, may be regarded justly as pseudo-
classical. At the same time, genuinely classical
qualities are present in Racine and Corneille,
and must be recognized, together with the
equally obvious pseudo-classical elements, as
contributing to the evolution of French classi-
cism. Here, again, it is a question of the
point of view. Criticism may consider a work
of art in the light of the absolute standard,
— the ideal, — and may also consider it in
relation to the evolution of literary types or
tendencies.

In judging a romantic revival, such criticism
finds its task at once peculiarly difficult and
peculiarly interesting; for the very nature of
romanticism is elusive, and its methods are those
v of symbolism and suggestion rather than of clear
definition. Yet, taking a broad view over the
entire romantic revival in England, — and the
same holds true of France in even greater de-

/

LITERARY ESTIMATE 251

gree, — one can see clearly that the orientalism
and pseudo-orientalism of the eighteenth

tury distinctly preluded the use of oriental
material by the romantic writers of the early \X^
nineteenth century. As Allan Ramsay and
Thomson prepared the way for Burns and /
Wordsworth, so, less obviously, but none the
less truly, the translators and writers of the \
oriental tale, together with historians and
travelers, were forerunners of Southey, Moore,
Byron, Matthew Arnold, Fitzgerald, and many
others, on to Kipling in the present day.

Moreover, the oriental tale directly contrib-
uted romantic elements to the imaginative in-
heritance of later writers. Its influence is
clearly traceable throughout the entire nine-
teenth century. We have seen that the History
of Charoba was the acknowledged inspiration of
Lander's Gebir. Vathek exerted great influence
on Byron's youthful work, an influence easily
understood if one recalls the mockery, the
sensuousness, and the brilliant setting of Beck-
ford's masterpiece, and especially the sinister
horror of the catastrophe.1 Barry Cornwall
drew more definitely from Vathek in his brief

xCf. App. A, pp. 258, 259, Byron.

252 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

poem, The Hall of Eblis.1 Beckford himself
borrowed directly from the Adventures of Ab-
dalla and the Mogul Tales.2 Lewis may have
derived his tale of terror, The Monk, from a
Turkish Tale.3 Possibly Swift also drew from
x^ the Turkish Tales.* Smollett makes Lydia, the
sentimental country heroine of Humphrey Clin-
ker, compare the "grandeur" of London to
J\ the dazzling enchantments of oriental story.4
/ Southey explicitly states his indebtedness to the-
New Arabian Nights for the idea of Thalaba.*-
James Thomson (1834-1882), with equal frank-
ness, acknowledges his obligation to the Arabian
Nights, in the case of The Doom of a City.4
Tennyson's early poem, Recollections of the /
Arabian Nights, is a good instance of the strong
appeal made to youthful imagination by the

splendours of

" the golden prime
Of good Haroun Alraschid." 8

1 Cf . Source of the Hall of Eblis by B. Cornwall, by H.
Jantzen, Archiv fur das Studium der neueren Sprachen u.
Literaturen . . . Vol. CVIII. (n. s. VIII.), 1902, p. 318 et seq.

1 Cf. Chap. I., pp. 36-38. 3 Cf. Chap. I., p. 27.

4 Cf. App. A, pp. 259-262, Swift; 262, 263, Smollett;
263, Southey and Thomson.

5 Cf . on the "goodness" of Haroun Alraschid, J. Payne :
The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, in nine
volumes . . . London, 1884, Vol. IX. Concluding Essay.

LITERARY ESTIMATE 253

Wordsworth and Scott, as schoolboys, came
eagerly under the spell.

" The tales that charm away the wakeful night
InAraby"

were to Wordsworth a precious treasure, setting
free the child's imagination.1 Part of the ro-
mantic charm of Venice in Wordsworth's eye,
was that

" Once did she hold the gorgeous East in fee."

Scott's mature imagination also retained an
interest in the Orient; witness The Talisman,
The Surgeon's Daughter, Count Robert of Paris,
and possibly the arrow contest in The Mon-
astery.2 De Quincey, in one of the most in-
teresting passages in his Autobiography,3 after
disparaging remarks concerning Sindbad and
Aladdin, goes on to say that one solitary section

1 Cf. App. A, pp. 263-265, Wordsworth; 265, Scott;
265, 266, Dickens; 266, Thackeray.

2 V. Chauvin, Bibliographic des ouvrages arabes, Vol.
VI., § 286 n., "Pari Banou." In Waverky, Chap. V., Scott
refers to Prince Hussain's tapestry and Malek's flying
sentry-box. The subtitle of The Betrothed is A Tale of
the Crusaders, but the story is in no respects oriental.

3 The Collected Writings of Thomas De Quincey . . .
edited by David Masson, Edinburgh, 1889, Vol. I., pp.
127-130. Cf. Revue des deux Mondes, 1896, Vol. 138,
pp. 121, 122.

254 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

of the latter story "fixed and fascinated" his
gaze: the incident of the murderous magician,
— who could gain the lamp only by the aid of
a pure child, — listening with ear to the ground
1 in order to distinguish the footsteps of his inno-

. cent young victim thousands of miles away.
vA *t)ickens in David Copperfield, Thackeray in
Vanity Fair and The Virginians, and Stevenson
in many passages, testify to a fondness for ori-
ental tales. Instances might be multiplied, but
enough have been given to show clearly that
the oriental tales, from the early versions of the
Arabian Nights on, have had a distinct value in
stimulating the imagination of numerous writers
and countless readers.1 In all these cases, the
vital and life-giving elements in this fiction have

\ been the picturesque and suggestive details
about strange oriental customs; mysterious
ideas like metempsychosis; entertaining narra-
tive ; richness of invention, — in short, the ro-
mantic qualities. These have constituted the

1 Of. V. Chauvin, op. cit., Vol. VI., for influence of
Arabian tales on European writers. Of course nine-
teenth-century authors were influenced also by versions
of the Arabian Nights later than those of the period
under discussion, e.g. those of J. Scott, Burton, Lane,
Payne, etc.

LITERARY ESTIMATE 255

chief charm of oriental story from the time of
Addison to the present day.

It must always be remembered that the ori-
ental tale met with disapproval as well as with
favour. The full significance of the genre is
understood only when we recognize it as a test
of the public opinion of the age concerning
romanticism, and not merely as a witness to the
romantic mood. On the one hand, condemned
by typical men of letters as "wild" and "ro-
mantick," it reveals the strength of Augustan
classicism as the law of the land; on the other,
welcomed with enthusiasm, persisting in one
form or another throughout the century, utilized
even by such defenders of the classical strong-
hold as Dr. Johnson,1 it testifies, by its mere
presence, to the new spirit of romanticism.

But before the death of the last great classi-
cist of the century new forces were already at
work, which were to bring the Orient much
nearer to England than ever before. The
growth of the Indian empire, of commercial '
intercourse with the East, and of the new demo-
cratic belief in the brotherhood of the whole

1 On one aspect of the duality in Dr. Johnson's nature,
cf. The Prayers of Dr. Johnson, edited by W. A. Bradley,
New York, 1902, pp. 84, 85.

256 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

world, helped to break down England's insularity
and to awaken a fresh interest in the Orient.
In letters, this modern spirit was first expressed
by the increased number of travelers' accounts,
and by the accompanying activity of orientalists
under the guidance of Sir William Jones. Direct
translations from oriental languages into Eng-
lish made a notable contribution to English
knowledge of Eastern life and literature, and had
a large share in turning the imaginations of nine-
teenth-century poets and story-tellers toward
the use of oriental material. A fresh chapter
in the history of oriental influence upon England
thus opened. This chapter — still in the making
— has been distinguished throughout its entire
course by actual first-hand knowledge of the
Orient, — one vital characteristic which throws
it into sharp contrast with the chapter discussed
in the present volume. But to consider even
the beginnings of the modern period, in the new
scholarly movement inaugurated by Sir William
Jones, would carry us beyond the limits of our
subject. By the time the new movement was
well under way, the oriental tale of the eigh-
teenth century had done its work and had
passed on its inheritance to its successors.

APPENDIX A

NOTES

Page 204, Sterne. The manuscript of Sterne's Bra-
mine's Journal, now in the British Museum (Add.
Ms. 34,527), is exhibited with the following note : " The
Bramine's Journal, being Sterne's Journal addressed to
Mrs. Eliza Draper after her departure for India. It
extends from 13 April (1767) to 4 August with a
postscript on 1 Nov. and is entirely in the author's
hand. It is full of expressions of extreme devotion,
and was discontinued on the arrival of Mrs. Sterne. At
the beginning is a note (evidently prefixed with a view
to publication) stating that the names are fictitious
and the whole translated from a French manuscript.
The page exhibited contains the record for 17 June:
' I have brought your name Eliza ! and Picture into
my Work [The Sentimental Journey, see the page ex-
hibited above, No. 23] where they will remain when you
and I are at rest forever. — Some annotator or explainer
of my works in this place will take occasion to speak
of the Friendship which subsisted so long and faith-
fully betwixt Yorick and the Lady he speaks of.' See
also the letter of W. M. Thackeray exhibited in Case
VII., No. 44, written after reading the Ms. [Add. Ms.
a 257

258 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

34,527]. Bequeathed in 1894 by T. W. Gibbs, Esq."
In Case VII. the letter exhibited reads as follows:
" He wasn't dying, but lying, I'm afraid — God help
him — a falser and wickeder man it's difficult to read
of. ... Of course any man is welcome to believe as
he likes for me except a parson: I can't help looking
upon Swift and Sterne as a couple of traitors and rene-
gades — ... with a scornful pity for them in spite of
their genius and greatness." " Dated 12 Sept. [1851]
Holograph. [Add. Ms. 34,527, f. 75.] Bequeathed in
1894 by T. W. Gibbs, Esq."

Page 251, note 1, Byron. On Byron's indebtedness
to the oriental tale, cf. (a) Die Belesenheit des jungen
Byrons . . . Dissertation . . . von Ludwig Fuhrmann,
Berlin, 1903, pp. 60, 61, also 5, 6.

(6) Byron's und Moore's Orientalische Gedichte, Eine
Parallele . . . Dissertation . . . von O. Thiergen.
Leipzig, 1880.

(c) Byron und Moore . . . Dissertation . . . von
Edgar Dawson. Leipzig, 1902, p. 60.

(d), (1), Childe Harold, Canto I., 22, note by editor.
Works of Lord Byron . . . edited by T. Moore, in 14
vols., Vol. VIII. London, 1832 : " ' Vathek ' (says Lord
Byron in one of his diaries) was one of the tales I had a
very early admiration of. For correctness of costume,
beauty of description, and power of imagination, it
far surpasses all European imitations; and bears such
marks of originality, that those who have visited the
East will find some difficulty in believing it to be no
more than a translation. As an Eastern tale, even

APPENDIX A 259

Rasselas must bow before it : his ' happy valley ' will
not bear a comparison with the ' Hall of Eblis.' "

(2) The Siege of Corinth, same edition, Vol. X.,
p. 131, Byron acknowledges that an idea hi certain
lines was drawn from Vathek, and then goes on to say,
"[Vathek is] a work to which I have before referred;
and never recur to, or read, without a renewal of grati-
fication."

(3) The Giaour, same edition, Vol. IX., p. 178,

"To wander round lost Eblis throne;
And, fire unquenched, unquenchable,
Around, within thy heart shall dwell ; " etc.

(4) Manfred, Act II., Sc. 4, p. 112 and notes. Poetry,
Vol. IV., of The Works of Lord Byron . . . edited by
E. H. Coleridge . . . London . . . New York, 1901.
Byron's note at beginning of the scene, " The Hall of
Arimanes — Arimanes on his Throne, a Globe of Fire,
surrounded by the Spirits."

Page 252, note 4, Swift. (In strict compliance with
our avowed exclusion of Hebrew literature from our
subject, the following note would be omitted. But
since the Turkish Tales is little known to-day, the
student of Swift may find it convenient to have access
to this curious story here.) In the Turkish Tales, the
story of the King of Aad, a distorted legend ' based

1 I am informed by Professor Charles C. Torrey of Yale
University, that this legend, of the duel between Moses and
"Auj" (Og, King of Bashan), is found in the oldest Arabic
history of Egypt, written about the middle of the ninth cen-
tury A.D.

260 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

on the conflict of the Children of Israel with Og, King
of Bashan and the Sons of Anak, reads as follows
[abridged from H. Weber : Tales of the East, Edinburgh, \J
1812, Vol. III., p. 198] :—

" Aoudge-Ibn-Anak, King of Aad, being informed
that the prophet Mousa, at the head of 600,000 Isra-
elites, was coming to preach the Jewish religion to
him, sent an army. . . . The prophet was strangely
surprised when he saw the King of Aad's troops . . .
whose children were above an hundred feet high. His
zeal then cooled a little; and before coming into
action, ... he sent twelve doctors to tell their prince
that it was a great pity such proper men should be
ignorant of God. This compliment was not difficult to
remember; and yet the doctors forgot it when they
came into the presence of Aoudge, who was cutting his
nails with a terrible large axe. This monstrous king,
seeing the prophet's twelve doctors so affrighted that
they could not speak one word, began to laugh so loud
that the echo resounded for the space of fifty leagues
around; he then put them all into the hollow of his
left hand, and turning them about like ants with the
little finger of his right hand, he said, ' If these
wretched animals would but speak, we would give
them to our children for playthings.' After this, he
put them into his pocket and marched [against] the
Israelites. When he came [near], he pulled their twelve
doctors out of his pocket; but they were no sooner on
the ground than they fled with all possible speed, and
never looked behind them. The Jews, terrified with

APPENDIX A

261

the enormous size of their enemies, abandoned their
prophet. Their wives attempted in vain to animate
and embolden them; but their timorous husbands
forced them with them in their flight, saying, ' Let us
fly, and leave the affair to the prophet. The Lord
hath no occasion for anybody besides himself to work
a miracle.' Mousa . . . then marched singly against
the people of Aad. The terrible Aoudge expected him
unconcerned . . . and lanced a rock at him, which had
crushed the prophet if God had not sent an angel in the
shape of a bird, which, with one peck of his bill, cleft
the rock in two. . . . Mousa then ... by a prodig-
ious effort of the Omnipotent Power became 70 cubits
higher than his natural stature; he then flew into the
air for the space of 70 cubits, and his rod was 70 cubits
long, with which he touched Aoudge 's knee, and that
prince died suddenly. The people of Aad immediately
fled, and the Israelites returned to offer their service
to the prophet; who said to them, ' Since you are so
timorous, as not to have courage enough to follow the
generous counsel of your wives, God will make you
wander in the lands of Teyhyazousi, for the space of
40 years.' "

Cf. in a Voyage to Lilliput, in Gulliver's Travels,
edited by G. R. Dennis, London, 1899, Vol. VIII., p. 30,
of Prose Works of J. Swift, edited by Temple Scott,
the incident of Gulliver's putting into his pocket five
Lilliputians, who had shot arrows at him. " As to the
sixth, I made countenance as if I would eat him alive.
The poor man squalled terribly . . . but . . . looking

262 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

mildly ... I set him gently on the ground, and away
he ran. I treated the rest in the same manner, taking
them one by one out of my pocket. . . ." The pic-
ture of Aoudge holding the doctors in his hand and
putting them into his pocket is quite in the manner
of Swift; the mockery of the doctors and the ironical
description of the courageous wives of the Jews, and
of the miracle, is thoroughly Swiftian in spirit. Yet
the similarity may be chance coincidence. Cf . Dennis,
op. cit., Introduction, p. xxiii, on the sources of Gulliver's
Travels.

Page 252, note 4, Smollett. Cf . The Works of Tobias
Smollett . . . Edinburgh, 1883. On pp. 497, 498 of The
Expedition of Humphrey Clinker, Lydia Melford writes
about London to her friend Miss Letitia Willis at
Gloucester: "All that you read of wealth and gran-
deur in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments and the
Persian Tales, concerning Bagdad, Diabekir, Damas-
cus, Ispahan, and Samarkand, is here realized. . . .
Ranelagh looks like the enchanted palace of a genie,
adorned with the most exquisite performances of paint-
ing, carving, and gilding, enlightened with a thousand
golden lamps that emulate the noonday sun; crowded
with the great, the rich, the gay, the happy, and the
fair; glittering with cloth of gold and silver, lace, em-
broidery and precious stones. While these exulting
sons and daughters of felicity tread this round of
pleasure, or regale in different parties and separate
lodges, with fine imperial tea and other delicious
refreshments, their ears are entertained with the most

APPENDIX A 263

ravishing delights of music, both instrumental and
vocal. ... I really thought myself in paradise."

Page 252, n. 4, Southey. Cf . Thalaba the Destroyer. In
the Preface to the fourth edition, Cintra, 1800, quoted
on p. 6 of Vol. IV., Poetical Works of R. Southey,
Boston, 1880, Southey writes: " In the continuation
of the Arabian Tales, the Domdaniel is mentioned, —
a seminary of evil magicians, under the roots of the
sea. From this seed the present romance has grown."

Page 252, n. 4, James Thomson (1634-1882). Cf.
Poetical Works of James Thomson, edited ... by B.
Dobell in 2 vols., London, 1895, Vol. II., p. 109, The
City of Dreadful Night. Thomson says, p. 442, note
3, " The city of the statues is from the tale of Zobeide
in the History of the Three Ladies of Bagdad and the
Three Calendars. This episode and the account of the

Kingdoms of the Sea in Prince Beder and impressed

my boyhood more powerfully than anything else in the
Arabian Nights."

Page 253, n. 1, Wordsworth. Cf. The Prelude,
Book V. The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth,
edited ... by E. Dowden in 7 vols., 1. 460 et seq., Vol.
VII., London, 1893.

"A precious treasure had I long possessed,
A little yellow, canvas-covered book,
A slender abstract of the Arabian Tales ;
And, from companions in a new abode,
When first I learnt, that this dear prize of mine
Was but a block hewn from a mighty quarry —
That there were four large volumes, laden all
With kindred matter, 'twas to me, in truth,
A promise scarcely earthly. Instantly,

264 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

With one not richer than myself, I made

A covenant that each should lay aside

The moneys he possessed, and hoard up more,

Till our joint savings had amassed enough

To make this book our own. Through several months,

In spite of all temptation, we preserved

Religiously that vow ; but firmness failed,

Nor were we ever masters of our wish.

And when thereafter to my father's house

The holidays returned me, there to find

That golden store of books which I had left,

What joy was mine ! How often . . .

For a whole day together, have I lain

Down by thy side, O Derwent ! murmuring stream,

On the hot stones, and in the glaring sun,

And there have read, devouring as I read,

A gracious spirit o'er this earth presides,

And o'er the heart of man : invisibly

It comes, to works of unreproved delight,

And tendency benign, directing those

Who care not, know not, think not what they do.

The tales that charm away the wakeful night

In Araby, romances ; legends penned

For solace by dim light of monkish lamps ;

Fictions, for ladies of their love, devised

By youthful squires ; adventures endless,

Dumb yearnings, hidden appetites, are ours,
And they must have their food. Our childhood sits,
Our simple childhood, sits upon a throne
That hath more power than all the elements.

... Ye dreamers, then
Forgers of daring tales ! we bless you then.
Impostors, drivellers, dotards, as the ape
Philosophy will call you : then we feel
With what, and how great might ye are in league,
Who make our wish, our power, our thought a deed,

APPENDIX A 265

An empire, a possession, — ye whom time
And seasons serve ; all Faculties to whom
Earth crouches, the elements are potter's clay,
Space like a heaven filled up with northern lights,
Here, nowhere, there, and everywhere at once."

Page 253, n. 1, Scott. Cf. Autobiography in Lock-
hart's Life of Scott, in five vols., Vol. I., p. 29, Boston,
1902.

" In the intervals of my school hours I had always
perused with avidity such books of history or poetry
or voyages and travels as chance presented to me —
not forgetting the usual, or rather ten times the usual
quantity of fairy tales, eastern stories, romances, &c.
These studies were totally unregulated and undirected.
My tutor thought it almost a sin to open a profane
book or poem." Cf. also references such as that in
Waverley, Chap. V., to Prince Hussein's tapestry,
and " Malek's flying sentry box "; and in the Intro-
duction to Quentin Durward to the " generous Aboul-
casem."

Page 253, n. 1, Dickens. (1) David Copperfield,
Chap. IV. " My father had left a small collection of
books. . . . From that blessed little room, Roderick
Random, Peregrine Pickle, Humphrey Clinker, Tom
Jones, The Vicar of Wakefield, Don Quixote, Gil Bias,
and Robinson Crusoe, came out, a glorious host, to
keep me company. They kept alive my fancy, and my
hope of something beyond that place and time [his
dreary childhood], — they, and the Arabian Nights and
the Tales of the Genii, — and did me no harm."

(2) When a child, Dickens wrote a tragedy called

266 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

Misnar, the Sultan of India, founded on the Tales of
the Genii. See Life of Dickens by John Forster, Vol. I.,
pp. 7, 29, 34; also Chauvin, op. tit., IV., p. 11.

Page 253, n. 1, Thackeray. Cf. (1) Vanity Fair,
Chap. V. " On a sunshiny afternoon . . . poor Wil-
liam Dobbin . . . was lying under a tree in the play-
ground, spelling over a favorite copy of the Arabian
Nights — apart from the rest of the school — quite
lonely and almost happy. . . . Dobbin had for once
forgotten the world and was away with Sinbad the
Sailor in the Valley of Diamonds or with Prince Ahmed
and the Fairy Peribanon in that delightful cavern
where the prince found her, and whither we should
all like to make a tour." Chap. III. " She [Becky]
had a vivid imagination; she had, besides, read the
Arabian Nights and Guthrie's Geography."

(2) The Virginians, Chap. XXIII. Hetty Lambert
" brought out ' The Persian Tales ' from her mamma's
closet." Chap. XXX. Harry Warrington writes home
of reading " in French the translation of an Arabian
Work of Tales, very diverting."

(3) Roundabout Papers. In the paper " On a Lazy,
Idle Boy," Thackeray refers to "a score of white-
bearded, white-robed warriors, or grave seniors of the
city, seated at the gate of Jaffa or Beyrout, and listen-
ing to the story teller reciting his marvels out of The
Arabian Nights."

(4) Eastern Sketches contains many references to the
pleasure Thackeray has always taken in the Arabian
Nights, e.g. pp. 338, 339, of Works, Vol. X.

APPENDIX B. I.

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE

A list of the more important oriental tales published
in English during the period under consideration. The
order of arrangement is determined by the date of the
earliest edition extant. The works of each author are
grouped under his name. Editions given immediately
after the titles are first editions unless otherwise stated.
Editions starred are those referred to in the text or notes.

Abbreviations : Sp. = Spectator; Gu. = Guardian; Fr. =
Freeholder; Ra. = Rambler; Adv. = Adventurer; Wo. = World;
Con. = Connoisseur; Ba. = Babler; Id. = Idler; Mir. = Mirror;
Obs. = Observer; tr. = translated.

1. 1687. Marana, Giovanni Paolo. Letters writ by
a Turkish Spy, who liv'd five and forty years . . .
at Paris : giving an Account . . . of the most re-
markable transactions of Europe . . . from 1637 to
1682 [tr. from French, by W. Bradshaw, and edited
by Robert Midgley, M.D.], 8 vols., London, 1687-
1693. Twenty-second edition, 1734; . . . edition,
* 1748; twenty-sixth edition, 1770.

2. 1700, Brown, Thomas. Amusements Serious and
Comical Calculated for the Meridian of London,
separately published in 1700; and also in the Works
of Thomas Brown, in three volumes, with a Character
of the author by James Drake, M.D., * 1707-1708.

207

268 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

Cf. the four volumes in the Boston Athenaeum;

(a) the title-page of the first volume reads, The
Works of Thomas Brown, Serious, Moral, Comical and
Satyrical In Four Volumes, containing Amusements
[then follows table of contents of all four volumes].
To which is prefixed a Character of Mr. Brown and
his Writings, by James Drake, M.D. The Fourth
edition, Corrected, with large Additions, and a Sup-
plement, London. Printed for Samuel Briscoe, 1715;

(b) the title-page of the third volume reads, The
Third Volume of the Works of Mr. Tho. Brown,
Being Amusements, Serious and Comical, Calculated
for the Meridian of London. Letters Serious and
Comical to Gentlemen and Ladies. Mneas Sylvius's
Letters in English. A Walk around London and West-
minster, Exposing the Vices and Follies of the Town.
The Dispensary, a Farce. The London and Lacede-
monian Oracles. The Third Edition, with large Addi-
tions. London, Printed for Sam. Briscoe, and sold by
J. Morphew near Stationers' Hall,* 171- [date im-
perfect, conjecture : 1711]. In the last-named volume,
" A Walk around London and . . . the Town," p. 244,
is entitled also, The Second Part of the Amusements
Serious and Comical.

3. 1700. [A very, John]?

(a) The Life and Adventures of Captain John Avery
. . . now in possession of Madagascar written by a
person who made his escape from thence, 1700.

(6) The King of the Pirates, being an account of the
Famous Enterprises of Captain Avery, the Mock

APPENDIX B. I. 269

King of Madagascar, with His Rambles and Pira-
cies, wherein all the Sham Accounts formerly pub-
lish'd of him, are detected. In two Letters from
Himself: one during his Stay at Madagascar and
one since his Escape from thence, London, 1720.
[According to J. K. Langton in Diet. Nat. Biog.
article, "John Avery," (6) has been attributed to
Defoe, and both (a) and (6) are " fiction, with
scarcely a substratum of fact "].
4. Between 1704 and 1712. Arabian Nights Enter-
tainments: consisting of One Thousand and One
Stories, told by the Sultaness of the Indies, to divert
the Sultan from the Execution of a bloody vow . . .,
containing a better account of the Customs, Manners,
and Religion of the Eastern Nations, viz.: Tartars,
Persians and Indians, than is to be met with [in] any
Author hitherto published. Translated into French
from the Arabian MSS. by M. Galland, . . . and
now done into English from the third Edition in
French. . . . The fourth Edition, London, Printed
far_Andrew._Bell,_ In 12 [vols. 1-6], *1713-1715.
First edition, date unknown; second edition, *1712;
edition called the fourteenth edition, London, *1778,
4 vols. [ = " the oldest edition which I have seen
containing the latter half of Galland 's version." W.
F. Kirby in App. II., p. 467, Vol. X., of Burton's
Arabian Nights, Benares, 1884].
5. 1705. Defoe, Daniel.

(a) The Consolidator : or Memoirs of Sundry Trans-
actions from the World in the Moon, Translated

270 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

from the Lunar Language. By the Author of the
True-Born Englishman, London, . . . *1705.

(6) The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Lon-
don, *1719.

(c) A System of Magic, London, *1726.

6. 1707. Arimant and T amir a; an eastern tale [in
verse] In the manner of Dryden's fables; By a gentle-
man of Cambridge. London, 1707.

7. 1708. Turkish Tales; consisting of several Ex-
traordinary Adventures : with the History of the
SuUaness of Persia and the viziers. Written Origi-
nally in the Turkish Language by Chec Zade, for the
use of Amurath II., and now done into English. Lon-
don . . . JacobJEonson, *1768. Cf. also No. 15 (6)
below: 1714, Persian and Turkish Tales compleat.

8. 1708. Abu Jaafar Ebn Tophail. The Improvement
of Human Reason, exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn
Yokdhan; Written in Arabick above 500 years ago,
by Abu Jaafar Ebn Tophail. . . . Translated by
Simon Ockley . . ., London . . . *1708; another
edition, 1711. The first English version was pub-
lished in 1674, anonymously, with the title " An Ac-
count of the Oriental Philosophy . . . [etc.]." Cf . Brit.
Mus. Catalogue under "Abu Jaafar Ebn Tophail,"
and Diet. Nat. Biog. under "Geo. Ashwell " (1612-
1695). Cf. for full title of Ockley 's translation, pp.
126, 127, ante.

9. (1710?). Ali Mohammed Hadji (pseud.). A brief and
merry History of Great Britain, containing an account
of the religion, customs . . . etc. of the people, written

APPENDIX B. I. 271

originally in Arabick by Ali Mohammed Hadji. . . .
Faithfully rendered into English by A. Hillier, Lon-
don (1710?). Another edition, *1730.

10. 1711. Bidpai. Principal eighteenth-century ver-
sions. (1) jEsop Naturalized, in a collection of fables
and stories from sEsop . . . Pilpay and others . . .
London, *1711; another edition, 1771; (2) The In-
structive and Entertaining Fables of Pilpay, an an-
cient Indian Philosopher, containing a number of
excellent rules for the conduct of persons of all ages.
London, 1743. [This is a reproduction of the 1679
version, "Made for the Duke of Gloucester."] Other
editions, 1747, 1754; fifth edition, 1775; sixth edition,
1789. Cf. Chauvin, Bibliographic, II., pp. 33, 40, 70,
and Table opposite p. 1. The earliest English ver-
sion of Bidpai is Sir Thomas North's Moratt Philoso-
phic of Doni . . . 1570.

11. 1711. Addison, Joseph.

[Sp. No. 50, April 27, 1711. Observations by four
Indian Kings.]

Sp. No. 94, June 18, 1711. (1) Mahomet's journey
to the seven heavens. (2) The adventures of the
Sultan of Egypt.

Sp. No. 159, Sept. 1, 1711. The Vision of Mirza.

Sp. No. 195, Oct. 13, 1711. Story of sick king cured
by exercise with drugged mallet.

[Sp. No. 237, Dec. 1, 1711. Jewish tradition con-
cerning Moses.]

Sp. No. 289, Jan. 31, 1711-1712. Story of the dervish
who mistakes a palace for an inn.

272 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

Sp. No. 293, Feb. 5, 1711-1712. Persian fable of

drop of water which became a pearl.
Sp. No. 343, April 3, 1712. Story of Pug the monkey.
Sp. No. 349, April 10, 1712. Story of courageous

Midi Moluc, Emperor of Morocco.
Sp. No. 511, Oct. 16, 1712. (1) Persian marriage-
auction. (2) Merchant who purchased old woman

in a sack.
Sp. No. 512, Oct. 17, 1712. Story of Sultan Mah-

moud and his vizier.

Sp. No. 535, Nov. 13, 1712. Story of Alnaschar.
Gu. No. 99, July 4, 1713. Persian story of just sultan.
Gu. No. 167, Sept. 22, 1713. Story of Helim and

Abdattah.
Sp. No. 557, June 21, 1714. Letter to the King of

Bantam.
Sp. Nos. 584 and 585, Aug. 23 and 25, 1714. Story

of Hilpa, Harpath, and Shalum.
Fr. No. 17, Feb. 17, 1716. Persian Emperor's riddle.
12. 1712. Unknown Contributors to Guardian and

Spectator.
Gu. No. 162, Sept. 16, 1712. Story of Schacabac and

the Barmecide.
Sp. No. 578, Aug. 9, 1714. Story of Fadlallah and

Zemroude.
Sp. No. 587, Aug. 30, 1714. Story of Mahomet,

Gabriel, and the black drop of sin.
Sp. No. 604, Oct. 8, 1714. Vision at Grand Cairo.
Sp. No. 631, Dec. 10, 1714. Story of the dervise who

forgot to wash his hands.

APPENDIX B. I. 273

13. 1713. Pope, Alexander.

Gu. No. 61, May 21, 1713. Fable of the traveller and
the adder.

14. 1712. Steele, Sir Richard.

Sp. No. 545, Nov. 25, 1712. Letter from the Emperor

of China to the Pope.
Gu. No. 148, Aug. 31, 1713. Story of the Santon

Barsisa.

15. 1714. Persian Tales.

(a) The Thousand and One Days, Persian Tales.
Translated from the French by Mr. Ambrose
Philips. London, *1714-1715. [Cf . Chauvin, Bib-
liographic, IV., pp. 123-127.] Third edition, 1722 ;
fifth, 1738; sixth, 1750; *seventh, 1765; other
editions, 1781, 1783.

(6) The Persian and the Turkish Tales compleat [sic]
Translated formerly from those languages into
French [or rather compiled] by M. Petis de la
Croix . . . [assisted by A. R. Le Sage] and now
into Englsh [sic] from that translation by . . . Dr.
King, and several other hands. To which are added ;
Two letters from a French Abbot to his friend at
Paris, giving an account of the island of Mada-
gascar; and of the French Embassador's reception
by the King of Siam. London, *1714.

(c) Cf. Edward Button, A New Translation of the
Persian Tales, London, 1754; and the anonymous
Persian Tales designed for use and entertainment,
*Coburg, 1779-1781.

16. 1717. KoraSelynOglan (pseud.). The Conduct of

274 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

Christians made the sport of Infidels in a letter from a
Turkish merchant at Amsterdam to the Grand Mufti
at Constantinople on occasion of . . . the late scandal-
ous quarrel among the clergy, *1717.

17. 1720. Bre"mond, G. De. The Beautiful Turk,
Translated from the French original, Printed in the
Year 1720. [London.] This is another translation
of the French tale by G. de Bremond translated
" by B. B." as Hattige or the amours of the King of
Tamaran, published in Amsterdam, 1680; and also
hi Vol. I., *1679 or 1683(?) in R. Bentley's Modern
Novels.

18. 1722. (Dec. 11, 1721.) Parnell, Thomas. The
Hermit, printed posthumously in Poems on Several
Occasions. — Written by Dr. Thomas Parnell, late
Arch- Deacon of Clogher : and pubfafad-by-M

London, *1722 (Dec. 11, 1721). For numerous vol-
umes containing this poem, see Brit . Mus. Catalogue.

19. 1722. Aubin, Mrs. Penelope. The Noble Slaves,
or the Lives and Adventures of Two Lords and Two
Ladies (in Aubin 's Histories and Novels'), London,
*1722. Another edition, Dublin, (1730); also in
Mrs. E. Griffith's collection, 1777.

20. 1722. Mailly [or Mailli], Chevalier de. The Travels
and Adventures of three princes of Sarendip. Inter-
mixed with eight delightful and entertaining novels,
translated from the Persian [or rather the Italian of
Chr. Armeno] into French, an [sic] from thence done
into English. London, *1722.

21. 1725. Segrais, J. Regnauld de. Bajazet or The

APPENDIX B. I. 275

Imprudent Favorite, in Five Novels Translated from
the French. London, *1725.

22. 1725. Gueullette, Thomas Simon.

(a) Chinese Tales, or the wonderful Adventures of
the Mandarin Fum-Hoam translated from the
French [of T. S. Gueullette]. London, 1725. An-
other translation, Chinese Tales . . . Fum-Hoam
. . . translated by the Rev. Mr. Stackhouse, Lon-
don, n.d. (Cook's pocket edition of select novels).
Another edition, *1781.

(6) Mogul Tales . . . Now first translated into English
. . . With a prefatory discourse on the usefulness of
Romances. London, *1736. Second edition, 1743.

(c) Tartarian Tales, or a thousand and one Quarters
of Hours, Written in French by the celebrated Mr.
Guelletee [sic] Author of the Chinese, Mogul and
other Tales. The whole now for the first time trans-
lated into English by Thomas Flloyd. London,
printed for^T and R. Tonson in the Strand, *1759.
Another edition, Dublin, printed for Wm. Wil-
liamson, Bookseller, at Maecenas's Head, Bride St.,
1764; another edition, London, 1785; printed in
the Novelist's Magazine, 1785.

(d) Peruvian Tales related in one thousand and one
hours, by one of the select virgins of Cuzco to the

Ynca of Peru . . . Translated from the original
French by S. Humphreys (continued by J. Kelly}.
Fourth edition. London, 1764. Another edition,
1786.

23. 1729. Bignon, Jean Paul. Adventures of Abdalla,

276 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

Son of Hanif, sent by the Sultan of the Indies to make
a Discovery of the island of Borico . . . translated into
French from an Arabick manuscript . . . by Mr. de
Sandisson \pseud.] . . . done into English by William
Hatchett. . . . London, * 1729. Second edition,
*1730.

24. 1730. Montesquieu, C. de Secondat, Baron de.
Persian Letters Translated by Mr. Ozett. London,
*1730. Third edition, 1731; sixth edition, anon.,
Edinburgh, *1773.

25. 1730. Gomez, Mme. Madeleine Angelique (Poisson)
de. Persian Anecdotes; or, Secret memoirs of the
Court of Persia. Written originally in French, for
the Entertainment of the King, by the celebrated
Madame de Gomez, Author of La Belle Assemblee.
Translated by Paul Chamberlain, Gent. London
*1730. The title in the British Museum Catalogue
reads, " The Persian Anecdotes . . . Persia, containing
the history of those two illustrious heroes, Sophy-Ismael,
surnamed the Great, and Tor, King of Ormus, etc.
[Translated from the French by P. Chamberlen.]
London, 1730."

26. 1731. [Boles, W.?] Milk for Babes, Meat for
Strong Men and Wine for Petitioners, Being a Comical,
Sarcastical, Theological Account of a late Election at
Bagdad, for Cailiff of that City. Faithfully Trans-
lated from the Arabick, and Collated with the most
Authentic Original Manuscripts. By the Great,
Learned and Most Ingenious Alexander the Copper
Smith. . . . Second edition, Cork, *1731.

APPENDIX B. I. 277

27. 1733. [D'Orville, Adrian de la Vieuville.] The Ad-
ventures of Prince Jakaya or the Triumph of Love
over Ambition, being Secret Memoirs of the Ottoman
Court. Translated from the Original French. . . .
London, *1733.

28. 1735. Lyttelton, George, First Baron (1709-1 773).
Letters from a Persian in England to his friend at
Ispahan. London, *1735. Fifth edition, 1774;
printed also in Harrison's British Classicks, London,
*1787-1793. Vol. L; and in numerous editions of
Lyttelton's Works. See Brit. Mus. Catalogue.

29. 1735. Cr6billon, C. P. Jolyot de.

(a) The Skimmer, or the history of Tanzai and Near-
darne (a Japanese tale), tr.from the French. — 1735.
Another edition, 1778.

(b) The Sopha, a moral tale, tr. from the French (a
new edition). . . . London, 1781.

30. 1736. The Persian Letters, continued. Third edi-
tion, London, *1736 [" erroneously ascribed to Lord
Lyttelton," Diet. Nat. Biog.].

31. 1739. Boyer (Jean Baptiste de) Marquis d'Ar-
gens. Chinese Letters; being a philosophical,
historical, and critical correspondence between a
Chinese Traveler at Paris and his countrymen in
China, Muscovy, Persia, and Japan. Translated
. . . into [or rather written in] French by the Mar-
quis d'Argens; and now done into English. . . .
London, *1741.

32. (17-?). Bougeant, G. H. The Wonderful Travels
of Prince Fan-Feredin, Translated from the French

278 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

[of G. H. Bougeant, *1735], Northampton, n.d.
For full title, cf. p. 213, ante.

33. 1741. Haywood, Mrs. Eliza. The Unfortunate
Princess, or the Ambitious Statesman, containing the
Life and surprizing [sic] Adventures of the Princess
of Ijaveo [Ijaves], Interspersed with several curious
and entertaining Novels. London, *1741.

34. 1742. Collins, William. Persian Eclogues, Written
originally for the entertainment of the Ladies of Tauris
and now translated, *1742; reprinted *1757 as Ori-
ental Eclogues.

35. 1744. The Lady's Drawing Room . . . inter-
spersed with entertaining and affecting Novels. Lon-
don, *1744 [contains The History of Rodomond and
the Beautiful Indian, and The History of Henrietta
de Bellgrave].

36. 1745. Caylus, A. C. P. de Tubieres, Comte de. Ori-
ental Tales, collected from an Arabian Manuscript in
the Library of the King of France. . . . London,
*1745. Another edition (1750?).

37. 1745. Vieux-maisons, Mme. de or Pecquet, A. (?).
The Perseis, or secret memoirs for a History of Persia
[a political satire], translated from the French with
a key. . . . London, *1745. Another edition,
1765.

38. 1748. Graffigny, F. Huguet de. Letters written by
a Peruvian Princess, translated from the French [of F.
Huguet de Graffigny]. London, 1748. Another edi-
tion, Dublin, *1748. Another translation, The Peru-
vian Letters, translated from the French, with an

APPENDIX B. I. 279

additional original volume by R. Roberts. London,

1774.
39. 1749. Voltaire, F. M. Arouet de.

1749. (a) Zadig, or the Book of Fate, an Oriental
History, translated from the French original of M.
Voltaire, London, printed for John Brindley, etc.,
*1749 A version by F. Ashmore, London, 1780;
another edition, 1794. Also in (1) The Works ofM.
de Voltaire Translated from the French with Notes,
Historical and Critical. By T. Smollett, M.D.,
T. Francklin, M.A., and others, Vols. I.-XXV., Lon-
don ... 1761-1765; Vol. XL, . . . London . . .
1762; in (2) The Works ofM. de Voltaire. Trans-
lated from the French with Notes, Historical, critical
and Explanatory. By T. Francklin, D.D., Chap-
lain to his Majesty, and late Greek Professor in the
University of Cambridge, T. Smollett, M.D., and
others. A new edition, 38 vols., 1778-1761-1781,
Vol. XI. ... London . . . 1779; and in (3) Ro-
mances, Tales and Smaller Pieces of M. de Voltaire,
Vol.1., . . . London. . . . 1794.

1754. (b) Babouc or the World as it goes. By . . .
Voltaire. To which are added letters, etc. London,
*1754. Also in (1) Works, Vol. XI., 1762; in

(2) Works (new edition), Vol. XL, 1779; and in

(3) Romances, 1794, all cited above under
Zadig.

1762. (c) A Letter from a Turk concerning the Fa-
quirs, and his Friend Bababec, in (1) Works, Vol.
XIII., 1762 (?); in (2) Works, new edition, Vol.

280 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

XIII., 1779; and in (3) Romances, 1794, all cited
above under Zadig.

1762. (d) History of the Travels of Scarmentado.
Written by himself, in (1) Works, Vol. XII.,
*1762 (?); in (2) Works, new edition, Vol. XII.,
1779; and in (3) Romances, 1794, all cited above
under Zadig.

1762. (e) Memnon; or Human Wisdom. [Memnon
the Philosopher] in (1) Works, Vol. XIII., *1762 ( ?) ;
in (2) Works, new edition, Vol. XIII., 1779; and
in (3) Romances, 1794, all cited above under Zadig.

1763. (/) History of a Good Bramin in (1) Works,
Vol. XXVI., *1763; and in (2) Works, new edi-
tion, Vol. XIX., 1780, both cited above under
Zadig. Also printed separately as follows: The
History of a Good Bramin to which is annexed an
essay on the reciprocal contempt of nations proceed-
ing from their vanity. London, 1795 [no author or
translator given].

1765. (g) The Black and the White, in (1) Works,

Vol. XXV., *1765; and in (3) Romances, 1794,

both cited above under Zadig.
1769. (h) The Princess of Babylon. London, *1769.

Also in (1) Works . . . Vol. XXV., 1770; and in

(3) Romances, 1794, both cited above under

Zadig.
1774. (i) The White Bull [tr. by J. Bentham],

*1774. Also in (3) Romances, 1794, cited above

under Zadig.
1774. 0) The Hermit, an Oriental Tale. Newly

APPENDIX B. I. 281

translated from the French of M. de Voltaire [being

a chapter of Zadig], 1774.

[N.B. — Apparently Voltaire's oriental sketches:
Andre des Touches at Siam, A Conversation with a
Chinese, and An Adventure in India, as well as the
Letters of Amabed, were not translated into English
in the eighteenth century.]

40. 1750. Johnson, Samuel.

Ra. No. 38, July 28, 1750. Hamet and Raschid.
Ra. No. 65, Oct. 1750. Obidah, the son of Abensima,

and the Hermit.
Ra. No. 120, May 11, 1751. Nouradin the Merchant

and his son Almamoulin.
Ra. No. 190, Jan. 11, 1752. Morad the son of Hanuth

and his son Abonzaid.
Ra. Nos. 204, 205, Feb. 29, March 3, 1752. Seged,

Lord of Ethiopia.
1759. The Prince of Abissinia [sic], a Tale [= Ras-

selas]. London, 1759. Second edition, 1759;

another edition, Dublin, 1759; . . . ninth edition,

1793.

Id. No. 75, Sept. 22, 1759. Gelalledin.
Id. No. 99, March 8, 1760. Ortogrul of Basra.
Id. No. 101, March 22, 1760. Omar, Son of

Hassan.

41. 1750? The History of Abdattah and Zoraide, or
Filial and Paternal Love. . . . To which is added
The Maiden Tower or a Description of an Eastern
Cave, Together with Contentment, a Fable. London
*(1750?).

282 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

42. 1752. Hawkesworth, John.

Adv. No. 5, Nov. 21, 1752. The Transmigrations of
a Soul.

Adv. Nos. 20, 21, 22, Jan. 13, 16, 20, 1753. The
Ring of Amurath.

Adv. No. 32, Feb. 24, 1753. Omar the Hermit and
Hassan.

Adv. No. 72, July 14, 1753. The Story of Amana
and Nouraddin.

Adv. No. 76, July 28, 1753. The Story of Bozaldab.

Adv. No. 91, Sept. 18, 1753. Yamodin and Tamira.

Adv. No. 114, Dec. 8, 1753. Almet the Dervise.

Adv. No. 132, Feb. 9, 1754. Carazan.

1761. Almoranand Hamet: an Oriental Tale. Lon-
don, 1761, 2 vols. Second edition, London, 1761;
another edition, 1780; another, London (1794?).

43. 1753. Moore, E.

Wo. No. 40, Oct. 4, 1753. Prince Ruzvanchad and the
princess Cheheristany, The Infelicities of Marriage.

44. 1754. Cambridge, Richard Owen.

(a) Wo. No. 72, May 16, 1754. Princess Parizade.
(6) The Fakeer, a Tale [in verse], 1756.

45. 1754. Colman and Thornton.

Con. No. 21, June 20, 1754. Story of Tquassaouw
and Knonmquaiha.

46. 1754. Le Camus, A. Abdeker, or the art of preserv-
ing beauty. Translated from an Arabic manuscript
[or rather from the French of A. Le Camus]. Lon-
don, *1754. Another edition, Dublin, 1756.

47. 1754. Murphy, Arthur, Esq. Works of A. Murphy

APPENDIX B. I. 283

in 7 volumes. London, 1786. Vol. VI. contains the
Gray's Inn Journal, in No. 64 of which, Jan. 5, 1754,
is a tale (entitled, Aboulcasem of Bagdad), said to be
by " my friend Capt. Gulliver."

48. 1755. Transmarine, Mr. [pseud.]. The Life and
surprizing [sic] Adventures of Friga Reveep . . .
Written in French by himself and translated into
English by Mr. Transmarine, *1755. For full title,
cf. pp. 48, 49, ante.

49. 1757. Walpole, Horace.

(a) A Letter from Xo- Ho, a Chinese Philosopher at

London to his friend Lien Chi at Peking, *1757.
(6) Hieroglyphic Tales. Strawberry Hill, *1785.

50. 1760. Goldsmith, Oliver.

(a) The Citizen of the World, first printed in form of
bi-weekly letters in Newbery's Public Ledger begin-
ning Jan. 24, 1760. First edition, London, *1762.
2 vols. Other editions, 1769, 1774, 1796.

(1765). (b) Asem, an Eastern Tale: or a vindication
of the wisdom of Providence in the moral govern-
ment of the world *(1765 or 1759?). Cf. footnote
to p. 125, ante.

51. 1760. Hamilton, Antoine, Count.

1760. (a) The History of the Thorn-Flower [= May-
Flower], in (1) Select Tales of Count Hamilton,
Author of the Life and Memoirs of the Count de
Grammont, Translated from the French. In two
volumes. Vol. I., London . . . 1760; and (2)
History of May- Flower, A Circassian Tale, second
edition . . . Salisbury . . . London, 1796.

284 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

(6) The Ram, in (1) 1760, cited above under The

History of the Thorn- Flower.
(c) The History of the Four Facardins, in Vol. II.

of (1), 1760, cited above under The History of the

Thorn- Flower.

52. 1762. Langhorne, John. Solyman and Almena.
Probably *1762. Second edition, London, 1764;
also edition in 1781; and one in East Windsor,
Connecticut, 1799.

53. 1764. Ridley, James, Rev., Chaplain to the East
India Company [M orell, Sir C. = pseud.]. Tales of
the Genii; or ... Delightful Lessons of Horam, the
Son of Asmar . . . tr. from the Persian Manuscript
by Sir C. Morell, 1764. 2 vols. Also editions 1780,
*1785, *1794.

54. 1764. Marmontel, J. F.

1764. (a) Soliman II. in (1) Moral Tales by M. Mar-
montel, *1764-1766 (?). Vol. I. ... London . . .
*1764; in (2) Moral Tales, by M. Marmontel. In
three Volumes. Vol. I., Edinburgh, 1768 ; in (3)
Moral Tales, by M. Marmontel Translated from the
French, by C. Dennis and R. Lloyd. In three
Volumes. Vol. I., London . . . 1781; in (4) an-
other edition of (3) Vol. I., Manchester . . . [1790
( ?)] ; in (5) Moral Tales by M. Marmontel. Trans-
lated from the French. In two Volumes. Vol. I.
Cooke's edition . . . London . . . (1795) ; and in
(6) Moral Tales by M. Marmontel. Vol. I. A
new edition . . . London . . . 1800.

1766 (?). (6) Friendship put to the Test in (1) Vol.

APPENDIX B. I. 285

III. *(1766?) of (1) cited above under Soliman
II.; in (2) Vol. III. (1768) of (2) cited above under
Soliman II. ; in (3) Vol. III., 1781, of (3) cited above
under Soliman II. ; in (4) = (4), (1790?), cited
above under Soliman II.; in (5) = (5), (1795),
cited above under Soliman II. ; in (6) Marmontel's
Tales, Selected and abridged for the Instruction and
Amusement of Youth, by Mrs. PUkington . . .
London . . . 1799 ; and in (7) = (6), 1800, cited
above under Soliman II.

1799. (c) The Watermen of Besons, in (6) cited
above under Friendship put to the Test.

55. 1767. [Kelly, Hugh.]

Ba. June 18, [1767]. Orasmin and Elmira, an Ori-
ental Tale. Also printed in Harrison's British
Classicks, Vol. VI., London, *1794.

56. 1767. Sterne, Laurence. The Bramine's Journal.
Written 1767, unpublished Ms. in the Additional Ms.
34,527, in British Museum.

57. 1767. [Sheridan, Mrs. Frances (Chamberlaine) .]
The History of Nourjahad. By the editor of Sidney
Biddulph; Dublin, *1767. Other editions, London,
1788, and 1792.

58. 1769. Smollett, Tobias G.

1769. (a) The History and Adventures of an Atom
by Nathaniel Peacock [i.e. T. Smollett]. London,
2vols., *1749 [1769]. Tenth edition, London, 2
vols., 1778 ; Edinburgh, 1784 ; London, 1786.

1773. (b) The Orientalist : A Volume of Tales after
the Eastern Taste. By the Author of Roderick

286 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

Random, Sir Lancelot Greaves, &c., and others . . .
Dublin, *1773.

59. 1769. Musgrave, Sir W. The Female Captive [i.e.
Mrs. Crisp] a Narrative of Facts which happened in
Barbary in 1756 written by herself. London, *1769,
2 vols.

60. 1769. D'Alenzon Mons. The Bonze or Chinese
Anchorite, an Oriental Epic Novel Translated from
the Mandarine Language of Hoamchi-vam, a Tar-
tarian Proselite, by Mons. D'Alenzon. . . . London,
*1769, 2 vols. [also 1770 ?]. Cf ., for full title, p. 126,
n. 1, ante.

61. 1770. Chatterton, Thomas.

(a) Narva and Mored, an African Eclogue, first
printed in London Magazine, May, *1770; and
reprinted in the Miscellanies, *1778.

(b) The Death of Nicou, an African Eclogue, first
printed in London Magazine, June, *1770; and
reprinted in the Miscellanies, *1778.

(c) Heccar and Gaira, an African Eclogue, printed
hi the Supplement to the Miscellanies, *1784;
(written Jan. 1770).

62. 1774. Vaucluse, Made Fauques [or Falques] de.
The Vizirs, or the Enchanted Labyrinth, an Ori-
ental Tale. London, *1774, 3 vols.

63. 1774. Johnstone, Charles.

(a) The History of Arsaces, Prince of Betlis, by the

editor of Chrysal. London, *1774.
(6) The Pilgrim, or a Picture of Life, in a series of

letters written mostly from London by a Chinese

APPENDIX B. I. 287

philosopher to his friend at Quang-Tong, contain-
ing remarks upon the Laws, Customs and Manners
of the English and other Nations . . . London
*[1775], 2 vols. Other editions, London, 1775;
Dublin, 1775.

64. 1776. Irwin, Eyles.

(a) Bedukah, or the Self- Devoted. An Indian Pas-
toral. By the Author of Saint Thomas's Mount.
. . . London . . . *1776.

(6) Eastern Eclogues ; Written during a Tour through
Arabia, Egypt, and other parts of Asia and
Africa, In the Year 1777, . . . London, . . *1780.
[Contents : Eclogue I. Alexis : or The Traveller.
Scene: The Ruins of Alexandria. Time: Morn-
ing ... Eclogue II. Selima, or the Fair Greek.
Scene: A Seraglio in Arabia Felix. Time: Noon
. . . Eclogue III. Ramah ; or the Bramin. Scene:
The Pagoda of Conjeveram. Time: Evening . . .
Eclogue IV. The Escape, or, the Captives. Scene :
The Suburbs of Tunis. Time: Night. . . .]

65. 1779. Richardson, Mr. " Professor of Humanity
at Glasgow."

Mir. No. 8, Feb. 20, 1779. The Story of the Dervise's
Mirror.

66. (178- ?) Moir, The Rev. J. Gleanings, or Fugitive
Pieces, London *(178-?), [contains Hassan].

67. 1782. Scott, John (d. 1783). Oriental Eclogues in
volume entitled The Poetical Works of John Scott,
London, *1782. [The Arabian Eclogue in this collec-
tion was written by 1777.]

288 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

68. 1782. Scott, Helenus, M.D. The Adventures of a
Rupee wherein are interspersed . . . anecdotes Asiatic
and European. London, *1782.

69. 1783. CMlcot, Harriet (afterward Meziere). Ormar
and Zabria; or the Parting Lovers, an Oriental Ec-
logue, in volume entitled Elmar and Ethlinda, a
Legendary Tale and Adalba and Ahmora, an Indian
[ = Peruvian] Tale : with other pieces . . . London
. . . 1783.

70. 1785. Reeve, Clara. The Progress of Romance,
through Times, Countries and Manners, with Remarks
on the good and bad effects of it, on them respectively,
in a course of evening conversations. By C. R., author
of the English Baron, The Two Mentors, etc. . . .
Dublin, *1785 [contains The History of Charoba,
extracted from the History of Ancient Egypt, Trans-
lated by J. Davies, *1672, from the French of Monsieur
Vattier, written originally in the Arabian tongue by
Murtadi. [Cf . Part II. of this Bibliography, No. 48.]
Clara Reeve modernized the language of Davies's
translation somewhat].

71. (1785?) Confucius the Sage (pseud.). The Ori-
ental Chronicles of the times; being the translation
of a Chinese manuscript supposed to have been written
by Confucius the Sage, London *(1785?).

72. (1785?) Cumberland, Richard.
06s. No. 14 (1785?), Abderama.

73. 1786. Beckford, William.

(a) History of the Caliph Vathek. English, *1786;
French, *1787.

APPENDIX B. I. 289

(1) The title-page of the first English edition
reads: An Arabian tale from an unpublished ms.,
with notes critical and explanatory, London, 1786.
On p. v, another title is given : The History of
the Caliph Vathek, with notes. The notes were
by the translator, Samuel Henley, D.D.

(2) The book had been written between Jan.
1782 and Jan. 1783, hi French by Beckford,
and was pubh'shed in French by him in 1787,
one edition at Lausanne, another at Paris. [Cf.
Part II. of this Bibliography, No. 5, (1), Gar-
nett's edition.]

(6) The Story of Al Raoui — a tale from the Arabick.
London, *1799. Given in Memoirs of Wm.
Beckford by C. Redding. London, *1859. Vol.
I., p. 217.

74. 1786. The Baloon, or Aerostatic Spy. A Novel
containing a series of adventures of an aerial traveller
[contains the Eastern Tale of Harriet and Belinda],
London, *1786. 2 vols.

75. 1787. Bage, Robert. The Fair Syrian (a novel),
*1787. See La Belle Syrienne, Roman en trois
parties; par I'auteur du Mont-Henneth et des Dunes
de Barrham. Traduit de I'Anglois . . . *1788.

76. 1788. The Disinterested Nabob, a novel interspersed
with genuine descriptions of India, its manners and
customs. London, *1788. 3 vols. [Second edition.]

77. 1789. Berquin, Arnaud. The Blossoms of Morality,
— by the Editor of the Looking- Glass for the Mind.
London, *1789. Also, 1796.

290 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

78. (1790?) Cooper, J. The Oriental Moralist or the
Beauties of the Arabian Nights Entertainments.
Translated from the original [i.e. from Galland's
French version] and accompanied with suitable re-
flections adapted to each story by the Rev. Mr. Cooper,
author of the History of England, etc., London *( 1790?).
Cf. also The Beauties of the Arabian Nights Enter-
tainments consisting of the most entertaining Stories,
London, 1792.

79. 1790. Knight, Ellis Cornelia. Dinarbas, a Tale:
being a continuation of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia
[sic], London, *1790. Third edition, London, 1793;
fourth edition, London, *1800. Also printed in
same volume with S. Johnson's Rasselas . . . Green-
field, Mass., 1795.

80. 1790. Caraccioli, Louis Antoine de. Letters on the
Manners of the French . . . written by an Indian at
Paris. Translated from the French by Chas. Shillito.
Colchester, *1790.

81. 1792. [New Arabian Nights.] Arabian Tales, or
a continuation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments
. . . newly tr. from the original Arabic into French by
Dom Chavis . . . and M. Cazotte . . . and tr. from
the French into English by Robert Heron, Edinburgh
and London, *1792. 4 vols. Another edition, Lon-
don, 1794, 3 vols.

82. (1795?) The Arabian Pirate, or authentic history
and fighting adventures of Tulagee Angria [a chap-
book], Newcastle.

83. (1795?) The Trial and Execution of the Grand

APPENDIX B. I. 291

Mufti, from an ancient Horsleian manuscript, found
in the Cathedral of Rochester . . , London *(1795?).

84. 1796. The Siamese Tales, Being a Collection of
Stories told to the son of the Mandarin Sam-Sib, for
the Purpose of Engaging his mind in the Love of
Truth and Virtue, with an historical account of the
Kingdom of Siam. To which is added the Principal
Maxims of the Talapoins. Translated from the
Siamese, London, 1796. Another edition, Baltimore
. . . 1797.

85. 1796. [Mathias, T. J.] The Imperial Epistle from
Kien Long, Emperor of China to George III., King of
Great Britain in the year 1794. Translated into Eng-
lish from the original Chinese . . . [pseudo-oriental
satire in verse,] London, *1796. Other editions,
1798, 1802; and Philadelphia, 1800.

86. 1796. Klinger, F. M. von. The Caliph of Bag-
dad, Travels before the Flood, an Interesting Oriental
record of men and manners in the antediluvian world,
interpreted in fourteen evening conversations between
the Caliph of Bagdad and his court, tr. from Arabic
[ = translated from the German of F. M. von Klinger],
London, *1796. Cf. also No. 93 below, Lewis :
Amorassan.

87. 1797. Addison, Mr. Interesting Anecdotes, Memoirs,
Allegories, essays and poetical fragments, tending to
amuse the fancy and inculcate morality, London,
*1797. 16 vols.

88. 1799. Du Bois, Edward. The Fairy of Misfortune ;
or the Loves of Octar and Zulima, an Eastern Tale

292 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

Translated from the French by the Author of a Piece
of Family Biography. The Original of the above
Work is supposed to be in the Sanskrit in the Library
of the Great Mogul. London, *1799.

89. 1800. Pilkington, Mrs. [Mary P.].

(a) The Asiatic Princess, a tale. London, *1800.
2 vols.

(6) A Mirror of the Female Sex. Historical Beauties
for Young Ladies, intended to lead the female mind
to the Love and Practice of Moral Goodness, De-
signed Principally for the use of Ladies Schools :
London, *1804. [Third Edition] contains The
Governor's wife of Minchew; The Princess of
Jaskes; The Empress of China; Amestris, Queen
of Persia; Inkle and Yarico [West-Indian, not
oriental, taken from Addison, Sp. No. 11, March
13, 1710-1711].

90. (1800?) Day, Thomas. Moral Tales by Esteemed
Writers [contains The Grateful Turk], London
*(1800?).

91. 1802. Crookenden, Isaac. Romantic Tale. The
Revengeful Turk or Mystic Cavern. London, *1802.

92. 1804. Edgeworth, Maria. Popular Tales [contains

Murad the Unlucky] , 1804 ; second edition,

London, 1805.

93. 1808. Lewis, Matthew Gregory. Romantic Tales.
London, *1808, 4 vols. Contains The Anaconda, an
East Indian Tale, in Vol. II. ; The Four Facardins,
an Arabian tale [in part a translation, and in part
an original continuation by Lewis, of Hamilton's

APPENDIX B. I. 293

tale, Les Quatre Facardins] in Vols. II. and III. ;
and Amorassan or the spirit of the frozen ocean, an
Oriental Romance [in part a close translation from
Der Faust der Morgenldnder by F. M. von
Klinger] in Vol. IV.

APPENDIX B. H.

BOOKS OF REFERENCE, CRITICAL, HISTORI-
CAL, ETC.

An alphabetical list of the books most useful in a study
of this subject. Standard references of obvious value, e.g.
the Dictionary of National Biography, Boswett's John-
son, Chalmers's English Poets, Lane's Arabian Nights,
etc., are, with a few exceptions, omitted.
1. Arabian Nights.

(a) Burton, Sir Richard F. A Plain and literal
translation of the Arabian Nights' Entertainments,
now entitled the Book of the Thousand Nights and
a Night, with introduction, explanatory notes on the
manners and customs of Moslem men and a terminal
essay upon the history of the nights (in 10 vols.),
Benares, 1885. Printed by the Kamashastra So-
ciety for private subscribers only. Cf. especially
in Vol. X., Burton's Terminal Essay, and W. F.
Kirby's Bibliography of the Thousand and One
Nights and their imitations.

(6) Payne, John. The Book of the thousand nights
and one night . . . done into English prose and
verse ... by John Payne. New York, 1884. 9
vols. (Villon Society Publications ; Vols. III.-IX.,
published in London.) Cf. especially essay at end

294

APPENDIX A 263

ravishing delights of music, both instrumental and
vocal. ... I really thought myself in paradise."

Page 252, n. 4, Southey. Cf . Thalaba the Destroyer. In
the Preface to the fourth edition, Cintra, 1800, quoted
on p. 6 of Vol. IV., Poetical Works of R. Southey,
Boston, 1880, Southey writes: "In the continuation
of the Arabian Tales, the Domdaniel is mentioned, —
a seminary of evil magicians, under the roots of the
sea. From this seed the present romance has grown."

Page 252, n. 4, James Thomson (1634-1882). Cf.
Poetical Works of James Thomson, edited . . . by B.
Dobell in 2 vols., London, 1895, Vol. II., p. 109, The
City of Dreadful Night. Thomson says, p. 442, note
3, " The city of the statues is from the tale of Zobeide
in the History of the Three Ladies of Bagdad and the
Three Calendars. This episode and the account of the

Kingdoms of the Sea in Prince Beder and impressed

my boyhood more powerfully than anything else in the
Arabian Nights."

Page 253, n. 1, Wordsworth. Cf. The Prelude,
Book V. The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth,
edited ... by E. Dowden in 7 vols., 1. 460 et seq., Vol.
VII., London, 1893.

"A precious treasure had I long possessed,
A little yellow, canvas-covered book,
A slender abstract of the Arabian Tales ;
And, from companions in a new abode,
When first I learnt, that this dear prize of mine
Was but a block hewn from a mighty quarry —
That there were four large volumes, laden all
With kindred matter, 'twas to me, in truth,
A promise scarcely earthly. Instantly,

264 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

With one not richer than myself, I made

A covenant that each should lay aside

The moneys he possessed, and hoard up more,

Till our joint savings had amassed enough

To make this book our own. Through several months,

In spite of all temptation, we preserved

Religiously that vow ; but firmness failed,

Nor were we ever masters of our wish.

And when thereafter to my father's house

The holidays returned me, there to find

That golden store of books which I had left,

What joy was mine ! How often . . .

For a whole day together, have I lain

Down by thy side, O Derwent 1 murmuring stream,

On the hot stones, and in the glaring sun,

And there have read, devouring as I read,

A gracious spirit o'er this earth presides,
And o'er the heart of man : invisibly
It comes, to works of unreproved delight,
And tendency benign, directing those
Who care not, know not, think not what they do.
The tales that charm away the wakeful night
In Araby, romances ; legends penned
For solace by dim light of monkish lamps ;
Fictions, for ladies of their love, devised
By youthful squires ; adventures endless,
* * *****

Dumb yearnings, hidden appetites, are ours,
And they must have their food. Our childhood sits,
Our simple childhood, sits upon a throne
That hath more power than all the elements.

. . . Ye dreamers, then
Forgers of daring tales ! we bless you then.
Imposters, drivellers, dotards, as the ape
Philosophy will call you : then we feel
With what, and how great might ye are in league,
Who make our wish, our power, our thought a deed,

APPENDIX A 265

An empire, a possession, — ye whom time
And seasons serve ; all Faculties to whom
Earth crouches, the elements are potter's clay,
Space like a heaven filled up with northern lights,
Here, nowhere, there, and everywhere at once."

Page 253, n. 1, Scott. Cf. Autobiography in Lock-
hart's Life of Scott, in five vols.,Vol. I., p. 29, Boston,
1902.

" In the intervals of my school hours I had always
perused with avidity such books of history or poetry
or voyages and travels as chance presented to me —
not forgetting the usual, or rather ten times the usual
quantity of fairy tales, eastern stories, romances, &c.
These studies were totally unregulated and undirected.
My tutor thought it almost a sin to open a profane
book or poem." Cf. also references such as that in
Waverley, Chap. V., to Prince Hussein's tapestry,
and " Malek's flying sentry box "; and in the Intro-
duction to Quentin Durward to the " generous Aboul-
casem."

Page 253, n. 1, Dickens. (1) David Copperfield,
Chap. IV. " My father had left a small collection of
books. . . . From that blessed little room, Roderick
Random, Peregrine Pickle, Humphrey Clinker, Tom
Jones, The Vicar of Wakefield, Don Quixote, Gil Bias,
and Robinson Crusoe, came out, a glorious host, to
keep me company. They kept alive my fancy, and my
hope of something beyond that place and time [his
dreary childhood], — they, and the Arabian Nights and
the Tales of the Genii, — and did me no harm."

(2) When a child, Dickens wrote a tragedy called

266 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

Misnar, the Sultan of India, founded on the Tales oj
the Genii. See Life of Dickens by John Forster, Vol. I.,
pp. 7, 29, 34; also Chauvin, op. tit., IV., p. 11.

Page 253, n. 1, Thackeray. Cf. (1) Vanity Fair,
Chap. V. " On a sunshiny afternoon . . . poor Wil-
liam Dobbin . . . was lying under a tree in the play-
ground, spelling over a favorite copy of the Arabian
Nights — apart from the rest of the school — quite
lonely and almost happy. . . . Dobbin had for once
forgotten the world and was away with Sinbad the
Sailor in the Valley of Diamonds or with Prince Ahmed
and the Fairy Peribanon in that delightful cavern
where the prince found her, and whither we should
all like to make a tour." Chap. III. " She [Becky]
had a vivid imagination; she had, besides, read the
Arabian Nights and Guthrie's Geography."

(2) The Virginians, Chap. XXIII. Hetty Lambert
" brought out ' The Persian Tales ' from her mamma's
closet." Chap. XXX. Harry Warrington writes home
of reading " in French the translation of an Arabian
Work of Tales, very diverting."

(3) Roundabout Papers. In the paper " On a Lazy,
Idle Boy," Thackeray refers to "a score of white-
bearded, white-robed warriors, or grave seniors of the
city, seated at the gate of Jaffa or Beyrout, and listen-
ing to the story teller reciting his marvels out of The
Arabian Nights."

(4) Eastern Sketches contains many references to the
pleasure Thackeray has always taken in the Arabian
Nights, e.g. pp. 338, 339, of Works, Vol. X.

APPENDIX B. I.

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE

A list of the more important oriental tales published
in English during the period under consideration. The
order of arrangement is determined by the date of the
earliest edition extant. The works of each author are
grouped under his name. Editions given immediately
after the titles are first editions unless otherwise stated.
Editions starred are those referred to in the text or notes.

Abbreviations : Sp. = Spectator; Gu. = Guardian; FT. =
Freeholder; Ra. = Rambler; Adv. = Adventurer; Wo. = World ;
Con. = Connoisseur ; Ba. = Babler ; Id. = Idler ; Mir. = Mirror;
Obs. = Observer; tr. = translated.

1. 1687. Marana, Giovanni Paolo. Letters urit by
a Turkish Spy, who liv'd five and forty years . . .
at Paris : giving an Account . . . of the most re-
markable transactions of Europe . . . from 1637 to
1682 [tr. from French, by W. Bradshaw, and edited
by Robert Midgley, M.D.], 8 vols., London, 1687-
1693. Twenty-second edition, 1734; . . . edition,
* 1748; twenty-sixth edition, 1770.

2. 1700, Brown, Thomas. Amusements Serious and
Comical Calculated for the Meridian of London,
separately published in 1700; and also in the Works
of Thomas Brown, in three volumes, with a Character
of the author by James Drake, M.D., * 1707-1708.

267

268 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

Cf. the four volumes in the Boston Athenaeum;
(a) the title-page of the first volume reads, The
Works of Thomas Brown, Serious, Moral, Comical and
Satyrical In Four Volumes, containing Amusements
[then follows table of contents of all four volumes].
To which is prefixed a Character of Mr. Brown and
his Writings, by James Drake, M.D. The Fourth
edition, Corrected, with large Additions, and a Sup-
plement, London. Printed for Samuel Briscoe, 1715;
(6) the title-page of the third volume reads, The
Third Volume of the Works of Mr. Tho. Brown,
Being Amusements, Serious and Comical, Calculated
for the Meridian of London. Letters Serious and
Comical to Gentlemen and Ladies. Mneas Sylvius' s
Letters in English. A Walk around London and West-
minster, Exposing the Vices and Follies of the Town.
The Dispensary, a Farce. The London and Lacede-
monian Oracles. The Third Edition, with large Addi-
tions. London, Printed for Sam. Briscoe, and sold by
J. Morphew near Stationers' Hall,* 171- [date im-
perfect, conj ecture : 1 7 1 1 ]. In the last-named volume,
" A Walk around London and . . . the Town," p. 244,
is entitled also, The Second Part of the Amusements
Serious and Comical.
3. 1700. [A very, John]?

(a) The Life and Adventures of Captain John Avery
. . . now in possession of Madagascar written by a
person who made his escape from thence, 1700.

(b) The King of the Pirates, being an account of the
Famous Enterprises of Captain Avery, the Mock

APPENDIX B. I. 269

King of Madagascar, with His Rambles and Pira-
cies, wherein all the Sham Accounts formerly pub-
lish'd of him, are detected. In two Letters from
Himself: one during his Stay at Madagascar and
one since his Escape from thence, London, 1720.
[According to J. K. Langton in Diet. Nat. Biog.
article, "John A very," (&) has been attributed to
Defoe, and both (a) and (6) are " fiction, with
scarcely a substratum of fact "].
4. Between 1704 and 1712. Arabian Nights Enter-
tainments: consisting of One Thousand and One
Stories, told by the Sultaness of the Indies, to divert
the Sultan from the Execution of a bloody vow . . .,
containing a better account of the Customs, Manners,
and Religion of the Eastern Nations, viz.: Tartars,
Persians and Indians, than is to be met with [in] any
Author hitherto published. Translated into French
from the Arabian MSS. by M. Galland, . . . and
now done into English from the third Edition in
French. . . . The fourth Edition, London, Printed
for Andrew Bell, In 12 [vols. 1-6], *1713-1715.
First edition, date unknown; second edition, *1712;
edition called the fourteenth edition, London, *1778,
4 vols. [ = " the oldest edition which I have seen
containing the latter half of Galland's version." W.
F. Kirby in App. II., p. 467, Vol. X., of Burton's
Arabian Nights, Benares, 1884].
5. 1705. Defoe, Daniel.

(a) The Consolidator : or Memoirs of Sundry Trans-
actions from the World in the Moon, Translated

270 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

from the Lunar Language. By the Author of the
True-Born Englishman, London, . . . *1705.

(6) The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Lon-
don, *1719.

(c) A System of Magic, London, *1726.

6. 1707. Arimant and Tamira; an eastern tale [in
verse] In the manner of Dryden's fables; By a gentle-
man of Cambridge. London, 1707.

7. 1708. Turkish Tales; consisting of several Ex-
traordinary Adventures : with the History of the
Sultaness of Persia and the viziers. Written Origi-
nally in the Turkish Language by Chec Zade, for the
use of Amurath II., and now done into English. Lon-
don . . . Jacob Tonson, *1768. Cf. also No. 15 (6)
below: 1714, Persian and Turkish Tales compleat.

8. 1708. Abu Jaafar Ebn Tophail. The Improvement
of Human Reason, exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn
Yokdhan; Written in Arabick above 500 years ago,
by Abu Jaafar Ebn Tophail. . . . Translated by
Simon Ockley . . ., London . . . *1708; another
edition, 1711. The first English version was pub-
lished in 1674, anonymously, with the title " An Ac-
count of the Oriental Philosophy . . . [etc.}." Ci. Brit.
Mus. Catalogue under "Abu Jaafar Ebn Tophail,"
and Diet. Nat. Biog. under "Geo. Ashwell " (1612-
1695). Cf. for full title of Ockley's translation, pp.
126, 127, ante.

9. (1710?). AH Mohammed Hadji (pseud.). Abriefand
merry History of Great Britain, containing an account
of the religion, customs . . . etc. of the people, written

APPENDIX B. I. 271

originally in Ardbick by Ali Mohammed Hadji. . . .
Faithfully rendered into English by A. Hillier, Lon-
don (1710?). Another edition, *1730.

10. 1711. Bidpai. Principal eighteenth-century ver-
sions. (1) jEsop Naturalized, in a collection of fables
and stories from jEsop . . . Pilpay and others . . .
London, *1711; another edition, 1771; (2) The In-
structive and Entertaining Fables of Pilpay, an an-
cient Indian Philosopher, containing a number of
excellent rules for the conduct of persons of all ages.
London, 1743. [This is a reproduction of the 1679
version, "Made for the Duke of Gloucester."] Other
editions, 1747, 1754; fifth edition, 1775; sixth edition,
1789. Cf. Chauvin, Bibliographic, II. , pp. 33, 40, 70,
and Table opposite p. 1. The earliest English ver-
sion of Bidpai is Sir Thomas North's Moratt Philoso-
phic of Doni . . . 1570.

11. 1711. Addison, Joseph.

[Sp. No. 50, April 27, 1711. Observations by four
Indian Kings.]

Sp. No. 94, June 18, 1711. (1) Mahomet's journey
to the seven heavens. (2) The adventures of the
Sultan of Egypt.

Sp. No. 159, Sept. 1, 1711. The Vision of Mirza.

Sp. No. 195, Oct. 13, 1711. Story of sick king cured
by exercise with drugged mallet.

[Sp. No. 237, Dec. 1, 1711. Jewish tradition con-
cerning Moses.]

Sp. No. 289, Jan. 31, 1711-1712. Story of the dervish
who mistakes a palace for an inn.

272 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

Sp. No. 293, Feb. 5, 1711-1712. Persian fable of

drop of water which became a pearl.
Sp. No. 343, April 3, 1712. Story of Pug the monkey.
Sp. No. 349, April 10, 1712. Story of courageous

Muli Moluc, Emperor of Morocco.
Sp. No. 511, Oct. 16, 1712. (1) Persian marriage-
auction. (2) Merchant who purchased old woman

in a sack.
Sp. No. 512, Oct. 17, 1712. Story of Sultan Mah-

moud and his vizier.

Sp. No. 535, Nov. 13, 1712. Story of Alnaschar.
Gu. No. 99, July 4, 1713. Persian story of just sultan.
Gu. No. 167, Sept. 22, 1713. Story of Helim and

Abdallah.
Sp. No. 557, June 21, 1714. Letter to the King of

Bantam.
Sp. Nos. 584 and 585, Aug. 23 and 25, 1714. Story

of Hilpa, Harpath, and Shalum.
Fr. No. 17, Feb. 17, 1716. Persian Emperor's riddle.
12. 1712. Unknown Contributors to Guardian and

Spectator.
Gu. No. 162, Sept. 16, 1712. Story of Schacabac and

the Barmecide.
Sp. No. 578, Aug. 9, 1714. Story of Fadlallah and

Zemroude.
Sp. No. 587, Aug. 30, 1714. Story of Mahomet,

Gabriel, and the black drop of sin.
Sp. No. 604, Oct. 8, 1714. Vision at Grand Cairo.
Sp. No. 631, Dec. 10, 1714. Story of the dervise who

forgot to wash his hands.

APPENDIX B. I. 273

13. 1713. Pope, Alexander.

Gu. No. 61, May 21, 1713. Fable of the traveller and
the adder.

14. 1712. Steele, Sir Richard.

Sp. No. 545, Nov. 25, 1712. Letter from the Emperor

of China to the Pope.
Gu. No. 148, Aug. 31, 1713. Story of the Santon

Barsisa.

15. 1714. Persian Tales.

(a) The Thousand and One Days, Persian Tales.
Translated from the French by Mr. Ambrose
Philips. London, *1714-1715. [Cf . Chauvin, Bib-
liographic, IV., pp. 123-127.] Third edition, 1722 ;
fifth, 1738; sixth, 1750; *seventh, 1765; other
editions, 1781, 1783.

(6) The Persian and the Turkish Tales compleat [sic]
Translated formerly from those languages into
French [or rather compiled] by M. Petis de la
Croix . . . [assisted by A. R. Le Sage] and now
into Englsh [sic] from that translation by . . . Dr.
King, and several other hands. To which are added ;
Two letters from a French Abbot to his friend at
Paris, giving an account of the island of Mada-
gascar; and of the French Embassador's reception
by the King of Siam. London, *1714.

(c) Cf. Edward Button, A New Translation of the
Persian Tales, London, 1754; and the anonymous
Persian Tales designed for use and entertainment,
*Coburg, 1779-1781.

16. 1717. Kora Selyn Oglan (pseud.). The Conduct of

274 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

Christians made the sport of Infidels in a letter from a
Turkish merchant at Amsterdam to the Grand Mufti
at Constantinople on occasion of . . . the late scandal-
ous quarrel among the clergy, *1717.

17. 1720. Brgmond, G. De. The Beautiful Turk,
Translated from the French original, Printed in the
Year 1720. [London.] This is another translation
of the French tale by G. de Bre'mond translated
"by B. B." as Hattige or the amours of the King of
Tamaran, published in Amsterdam, 1680; and also
in Vol. I., *1679 or 1683(?) hi R. Bentley's Modern
Novels.

18. 1722. (Dec. 11, 1721.) Parnell, Thomas. The
Hermit, printed posthumously in Poems on Several
Occasions. — Written by Dr. Thomas Parnell, late
Arch-Deacon of Clogher : and published by Mr. Pope.
London, *1722 (Dec. 11, 1721). For numerous vol-
umes containing this poem, see Brit. Mus. Catalogue.

19. 1722. Aubin, Mrs. Penelope. The Noble Slaves,
or the Lives and Adventures of Two Lords and Two
Ladies (in Aubin 's Histories and Novels'), London,
*1722. Another edition, Dublin, (1730); also hi
Mrs. E. Griffith's collection, 1777.

20. 1722. Mailly [or Mailli], Chevalier de. The Travels
and Adventures of three princes of Sarendip. Inter-
mixed with eight delightful and entertaining novels,
translated from the Persian [or rather the Italian of
Chr. Armeno] into French, an [sic] from thence done
into English. London, *1722.

21. 1725. Segrais, J. Regnauld de. Bajazet or The

APPENDIX B. I. 275

Imprudent Favorite, in Five Novels Translated from
the French. London, *1725.

22. 1725. Gueullette, Thomas Simon.

(a) Chinese Tales, or the wonderful Adventures of
the Mandarin Fum-Hoam translated from the
French [of T. S. Gueullette]. London, 1725. An-
other translation, Chinese Tales . . . Fum-Hoam
. . . translated by the Rev. Mr. Stackhouse, Lon-
don, n.d. (Cook's pocket edition of select novels).
Another edition, *1781.

(6) Mogul Tales . . . Now first translated into English
. . . With a prefatory discourse on the usefulness of
Romances. London, *1736. Second edition, 1743.

(c) Tartarian Tales, or a thousand and one Quarters
of Hours, Written in French by the celebrated Mr.
Guelletee [sic] Author of the Chinese, Mogul and
other Tales. The whole now for the first time trans-
lated into English by Thomas Flloyd. London,
printed for J. and R. Tonson in the Strand, *1759.
Another edition, Dublin, printed for Wm. Wil-
liamson, Bookseller, at Maecenas's Head, Bride St.,
1764; another edition, London, 1785; printed in
the Novelist's Magazine, 1785.

(d) Peruvian Tales related in one thousand and one
hours, by one of the select virgins of Cuzco to the

Ynca of Peru . . . Translated from the original
French by S. Humphreys (continued by J. Kelly).
Fourth edition. London, 1764. Another edition,
1786.

23. 1729. Bignon, Jean Paul. Adventures of Abdalla,

276 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

Son of Hanif, sent by the Sultan of the Indies to make
a Discovery of the island of Borico . . . translated into
French from an Arabick manuscript . . . by Mr. de
Sandisson [pseud.] . . . done into English by William
Hatchett. . . . London, *1729. Second edition,
*1730.

24. 1730. Montesquieu, C. de Secondat, Baron de.
Persian Letters Translated by Mr. Ozett. London,
*1730. Third edition, 1731; sixth edition, anon.,
Edinburgh, *1773.

25. 1730. Gomez, Mme. Madeleine Angelique (Poisson)
de. Persian Anecdotes; or, Secret memoirs of the
Court of Persia. Written originally in French, for
the Entertainment of the King, by the celebrated
Madame de Gomez, Author of La Belle Assemblee.
Translated by Paul Chamberlain, Gent. London
*1730. The title in the British Museum Catalogue
reads, " The Persian Anecdotes . . . Persia, containing
the history of those two illustrious heroes, Sophy-Ismael,
surnamed the Great, and Tor, King of Ormus, etc.
[Translated from the French by P. Chamberlen.]
London, 1730."

26. 1731. [Boles, W.?] Milk for Babes, Meat for
Strong Men and Wine for Petitioners, Being a Comical,
Sarcastical, Theological Account of a late Election at
Bagdad, for Caitiff of that City. Faithfully Trans-
lated from the Arabick, and Collated with the most
Authentic Original Manuscripts. By the Great,
Learned and Most Ingenious Alexander the Copper
Smith. . . . Second edition, Cork, *1731.

APPENDIX B. I. 277

27. 1733. [D'Orville, Adrien de la Vieuville.] The Ad-
ventures of Prince Jakaya or the Triumph of Love
over Ambition, being Secret Memoirs of the Ottoman
Court. Translated from the Original French. . . .
London, *1733.

28. 1735. Lyttelton, George, First Baron (1709-1773).
Letters from a Persian in England to his friend at
Ispahan. London, *1735. Fifth edition, 1774;
printed also in Harrison's British Classicks, London,
*1787-1793. Vol. I.; and in numerous editions of
Lyttelton's Works. See Brit. Mus. Catalogue.

29. 1735. Cr6billon, C. P. Jolyot de.

(a) The Skimmer, or the history of Tanzai and Near-
darn^ (a Japanese tale), tr.from the French. — 1735.
Another edition, 1778.

(&) The Sopha, a moral tale, tr. from the French (a
new edition). . . . London, 1781.

30. 1736. The Persian Letters, continued. Third edi-
tion, London, *1736 [" erroneously ascribed to Lord
Lyttelton," Diet. Nat. Biog.].

31. 1739. Boyer (Jean Baptiste de) Marquis d'Ar-
gens. Chinese Letters; being a philosophical,
historical, and critical correspondence between a
Chinese Traveler at Paris and his countrymen in
China, Muscovy, Persia, and Japan. Translated
. . . into [or rather written in] French by the Mar-
quis d'Argens; and now done into English. . . .
London, *1741.

32. (17-?). Bougeant, G. H. The Wonderful Travels
of Prince Fan-Feredin, Translated from the French

278 THE ORIENTAL TALE IN ENGLAND

[of G. H. Bougeant, *1735], Northampton, n.d.
For full title, cf. p. 213, ante.

33. 1741. Haywood, Mrs. Eliza. The Unfortunate
Princess, or the Ambitious Statesman, containing the
Life and surprizing [sic] Adventures of the Princess
of Ijaveo [Ijaves], Inter spers'd with several curious
and entertaining Novels. London, *1741.

34. 1742. Collins, William. Persian Eclogues, Written
originally for the entertainment of the Ladies of Tauris
and now translated, *1742; reprinted *1757 as Ori-
ental Eclogues.

35. 1744. The Lady's Drawing Room . . . inter-
spersed with entertaining and affecting Novels. Lon-
don, *1744 [contains The History of Rodomond and
the Beautiful Indian, and The History of Henrietta
de Bellgrave].

36. 1745. Caylus, A. C. P. de TubiSres, Comte de. Ori-
ental Tales, collected from an Arabian Manuscript in
the Library of the King of France. . . . London,
*1745. Another edition (1750?).

37. 1745. Vieux-maisons, Mme. de or Pecquet, A. (?).
The Perseis, or secret memoirs for a History of Persia
[a political satire], translated from the French with
a key. . . . London, *1745. Another edition,
1765.

38. 1748. Graffigny, F. Huguet de. Letters written by
a Peruvian Princess, translated from the French [of F.
Huguet de Graffigny]. London, 1748. Another edi-
tion, Dublin, *1748. Another translation, The Peru-
vian Letters, translated from the French, with an

INDEX

311

Perrault, Charles, xxiii, 228,

238.

Perseis, 201.

Persian Anecdotes, 200, 201.
Persian Eclogues, 52, 53.
Persian Letters, by Lyttelton,

72 n. 1, 160, 178-186, 190;

by Montesquieu, see Lettres

Persanes, Les.
Persian Tales, 13-25, 81, 233,

241, 248; see also P6tis de

la Croix.
Persian Tales of Inatulla,

92 n. 1.

Peruvian Tales, see Gueullette.
Pe'tis de la Croix, xxiv, 24,

246 ; see also Persian Tales.
Philips, Ambrose, 221, 222,

246 ; see also Persian Tales.
Pied Piper of Hamelin, The,

34.

Pilkington, Mrs. Mary P., 50.
Pococke, Edward, xxii, 130

n. 2.
Pope, Alexander, 77, 221, 222,

230, 238, 243, 244.
Princess of Babylon, The, 207-

209.
Progress of Romance, The, 55.

Quatre Facardins, Les, 219,
220.

Ragguagli di Parnaso, 240.
Ram, The, 218, 219.
Rasselas, xv, xxvi, 103, 110,

123, 124, 140-154, 227, 232,

248 ; see also Dinarbas, 103,

104.
Recollections of the Arabian

Nights, 252.

Reeve, Clara, 55, 246 n. 2.
Ridley, Rev. J., 102.
Robber Caliph, The, 42, 44,

45.

Robinson Crusoe, 12, 129, 130,

242 ; Farther Adventures of,

48.
Romance of an Hour, The,

76 n. 2.
Romanticism, xv-xxiii, Chap.

V.
Romantic Tales, 51.

Santon Barsisa, The, 27, 28, 81.
Scott, John, 52, 54.
Scott, Sir Walter, 253.
Seged, Lord of Ethiopia, 123,

124.
Segrais, J. Regnauld de,

Bajazet, 46.

Selima and Azor, 204 n. 2.
Sendebar, xix, 26.
Seven Sages of Rome, The, 26.
Sheridan, Mrs. Frances, 97.
Smollett, T., 203, 252.
Soliman II., 106, 204-207.
Solyman and Almena, 97, 99-

100.
Southey, Robert, xvii, 42,

54, 70, 236, 251, 252.
Spectator, see Addison and

Steele.
Steele, Sir Richard, 27, 79,

170, 232 ; see Addison.
Sterne, Laurence, 204.
Stevenson, R. L., 254.
Story of Ali Abrahazen and

the Devil, 203.
Story of the Arabian Magician

in Egypt, 203.
Sultan, or a Peep into the

Seraglio, The, 204 n. 2.
Swift, J., 162, 204 n. 1, 244;

Gulliver's Travels, 29.
System of Magic, A, 203.

Tales of the Genii, 102, 103.
Tartarian Tales, see Gueullette.
Toiler, 79.
Temple, Sir William, 246.

312

INDEX

Tennyson, A., 252.
Thackeray, W. M., 254.
Thalaba, see Southey.
Thomson, James (1832-1882),

252.

Thorn-Flower, 214-217.
Thousand and One Days, see

Persian Tales.
Thousand and One Nights, see

Arabian Nights.
Tour through England, 200.
Travels and Adventures of the

Three Princes of Serendip,

29-31.
Travels of Scarmentado, 207,

210.
Trial and Execution of the

Grand Mufti, The, 202.
Turkish Spy, The, xvii, 157-

162, 228, 239.
Turkish Tales, 25-29, 80, 252.

Unfortunate Princess, The, 52.

Vathek, xvii, xxvi, 37-41,
\/43 n. 1, 61-71, 230, 248, 251.

Vision of Mirza, The, 110,
112-114, 126, 232.

Vizirs, The, 102.

Voltaire, F. M. A. de, 68, 70,
126; "contes philoso-
phiques," 132-140, 231,
and 144-151 (Candide);
satiric tales, 156, 157, 207-
211, 231.

Walpole, Horace, 29 n. 3, 157,

187, 188, 220, 221, 223,

236, 248.
Watermen of Besons, The, 73,

75, 76.

White Bull, The 207, 209.
Whitehead, William, 224.
Wonderful Travels of Prince

Fan-Feredin, The, 213.
Wordsworth, W., 253.
World, 224, 225.
World as It Goes, The, 138-

140.

Zadig, 126, 132-138; see also
Hermit, The.

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