Chapter 89

[Footnote 300: Burton's brother.]

[Footnote 301: Romance of Isabel Lady Burton, ii., 656.]

[Footnote 302: Romance of Isabel Lady Burton.]

[Footnote 303: Burton's A.N., Suppl., ii., 61. Lib. Ed. ix., p. 286, note.]

[Footnote 304: Thus, Balzac, tried to discover perpetual motion, proposed to grow pineapples which were to yield enormous profits, and to make opium the staple of Corsica, and he studied mathematical calculations in order to break the banks at Baden-Baden.]

[Footnote 305: We are telling the tale much as Mrs. Burton told it, but we warn the reader that it was one of Mrs. Burton's characteristics to be particularly hard on her own sex and also that she was given to embroidering.]

[Footnote 306: Preface to Midian Revisited, xxxiv.]

[Footnote 307: Ex Ponto III., i., 19.]

[Footnote 308: The Gold Mines of Midian and the Ruined Midianite Cities (C. Kegan Paul and Co.) It appeared in 1878.]

[Footnote 309: The Land of Midian Revisited, ii., 254.]

[Footnote 310: Kindly copied for me by Miss Gordon, his daughter.]

[Footnote 311: They left on July 6th (1878) and touched at Venice, Brindisi, Palermo and Gibraltar.]

[Footnote 312: November 1876.]

[Footnote 313: From the then unpublished Kasidah.]

[Footnote 314: The famous Yogis. Their blood is dried up by the scorching sun of India, they pass their time in mediation, prayer and religious abstinence, until their body is wasted, and they fancy themselves favoured with divine revelations.]

[Footnote 315: The Spiritualist. 13th December 1878.]

[Footnote 316: In short, she had considerable natural gifts, which were never properly cultivated.]

[Footnote 317: See Chapter xxxviii.]

[Footnote 318: Arabia, Egypt, India.]

[Footnote 319: Letter to Miss Stisted.]

[Footnote 320: She says, I left my Indian Christmas Book with Mr. Bogue on 7th July 1882, and never saw it after.]

[Footnote 321: Burton dedicated to Yacoub Pasha Vol. x. of his Arabian Nights. They had then been friends for 12 years.]

[Footnote 322: Inferno, xix.]

[Footnote 323: Canto x., stanza 153.]

[Footnote 324: Canto x., stanzas 108-118.]

[Footnote 325: Between the Indus and the Ganges.]

[Footnote 326: A Glance at the Passion Play, 1881.]

[Footnote 327: The Passion Play at Ober Ammergau, 1900.]

[Footnote 328: A Fireside King, 3 vol., Tinsley 1880. Brit. Mus. 12640 i. 7.]

[Footnote 329: See Chapter xx., 96. Maria Stisted died 12th November 1878.]

[Footnote 330: See Chapter xli.]

[Footnote 331: Only an admirer of Omar Khayyam could have written The Kasidah, observes Mr. Justin McCarthy, junior; but the only Omar Khayyam that Burton knew previous to 1859, was Edward FitzGerald. I am positive that Burton never read Omar Khayyam before 1859, and I doubt whether he ever read the original at all.]

[Footnote 332: For example:-- "That eve so gay, so bright, so glad, this morn so dim and sad and grey; Strange that life's Register should write this day a day, that day a day."

Amusingly enough, he himself quotes this as from Hafiz in a letter to Sir Walter Besant. See Literary Remains of Tyrwhitt Drake, p. 16. See also Chapter ix.]

[Footnote 333: We use the word by courtesy.]

[Footnote 334: See Life, ii., 467, and end of 1st volume of Supplemental Nights. Burton makes no secret of this. There is no suggestion that they are founded upon the original of Omar Khayyam. Indeed, it is probable that Burton had never, before the publication of The Kasidah, even heard of the original, for he imagined like J. A. Symonds and others, that FitzGerald's version was a fairly literal translation. When, therefore, he speaks of Omar Khayyam he means Edward FitzGerald. I have dealt with this subject exhaustively in my Life of Edward FitzGerald.]

[Footnote 335: Couplet 186.]

[Footnote 336: Preserved in the Museum at Camberwell. It is inserted in a copy of Camoens.]

[Footnote 337: Italy having sided with Prussia in the war of 1866 received as her reward the long coveted territory of Venice.]

[Footnote 338: Born 1844. Appointed to the command of an East Coast expedition to relieve Livingstone, 1872. Crossed Africa 1875.]

[Footnote 339: "Burton as I knew him," by V. L. Cameron.]

[Footnote 340: Nearly all his friends noticed this feature in his character and have remarked it to me.]

[Footnote 341: The number is dated 5th November 1881. Mr. Payne had published specimens of his proposed Translation, anonymously, in the New Quarterly Review for January and April, 1879.]

[Footnote 342: This was a mistake. Burton thought he had texts of the whole, but, as we shall presently show, there were several texts which up to this time he had not seen. His attention, as his letters indicate, was first drawn to them by Mr. Payne.]

[Footnote 343: In the light of what follows, this remark is amusing.]

[Footnote 344: See Chapter xxiii, 107.]

[Footnote 345: In the Masque of Shadows.]

[Footnote 346: New Poems, p. 19.]

[Footnote 347: The Masque of Shadows, p. 59.]

[Footnote 348: Published 1878.]

[Footnote 349: New Poems, p. 179.]

[Footnote 350: Published 1871.]

[Footnote 351: Mr. Watts-Dunton, the Earl of Crewe, and Dr. Richard Garnett have also written enthusiastically of Mr. Payne's poetry.]

[Footnote 352: Of "The John Payne Society" (founded in 1905) and its publications particulars can be obtained from The Secretary, Cowper School, Olney. It has no connection with the "Villon Society," which publishes Mr. Payne's works.]

[Footnote 353: See Chapter xi., 43.]

[Footnote 354: Dr. Badger died 19th February, 1888, aged 73.]

[Footnote 355: To Payne. 20th August 1883.]

[Footnote 356: No doubt the "two or three pages" which he showed to Mr. Watts-Dunton.]

[Footnote 357: This is a very important fact. It is almost incredible, and yet it is certainly true.]

[Footnote 358: Prospectuses.]

[Footnote 359: Its baths were good for gout and rheumatism. Mrs. Burton returned to Trieste on September 11th.]

[Footnote 360: This is, of course, a jest. He repeats the jest, with variation, in subsequent letters.]

[Footnote 361: The author wishes to say that the names of several persons are hidden by the dashes in these chapters, and he has taken every care to render it impossible for the public to know who in any particular instance is intended.]

[Footnote 362: Of course, in his heart, Burton respected Lane as a scholar.]

[Footnote 363: Apparently Galland's.]

[Footnote 364: Mr. Payne's system is fully explained in the Introductory Note to Vol. i. and is consistently followed through the 13 volumes (Arabian Nights, 9 vols.; Tales from the Arabic, 3 vols.; Alaeddin and Zein-ul-Asnam, i vol.).]

[Footnote 365: One of the poets of The Arabian Nights.]

[Footnote 366: See Chapter iii. 11.]

[Footnote 367: He published some of this information in his Terminal Essay.]

[Footnote 368: Perhaps we ought again to state most emphatically that Burton's outlook was strictly that of the student. He was angry because he had, as he believed, certain great truths to tell concerning the geographical limits of certain vices, and an endeavour was being made to prevent him from publishing them.]

[Footnote 369: Burton's A. N. vi., 180; Lib. Ed. v., 91, The Three Wishes, or the Man who longed to see the Night of Power.]

[Footnote 370: The Lady and her Five Suitors, Burton's A. N., vi., 172; Lib. Ed., v., 83; Payne's A. N., v., 306. Of course Mr. Payne declined to do this.]

[Footnote 371: Possibly this was merely pantomime. Besant, in his Life of Palmer, p. 322, assumes that Matr Nassar, or Meter, as he calls him, was a traitor.]

[Footnote 372: Cloak.]

[Footnote 373: Cursing is with Orientals a powerful weapon of defence. Palmer was driven to it as his last resource. If he could not deter his enemies in this way he could do no more.]

[Footnote 374: Burton's Report and Besant's Life of Palmer, p. 328.]

[Footnote 375: See Chapter vi., 22.]

[Footnote 376: Palmer translated only a few songs in Hafiz. Two will be found in that well-known Bibelot, Persian Love Songs.]

[Footnote 377: There were two editions of Mr. Payne's Villon. Burton is referring to the first.]

[Footnote 378: Augmentative of palazzo, a gentleman's house.]

[Footnote 379: We have altered this anecdote a little so as to prevent the possibility of the blanks being filled up.]

[Footnote 380: That which is knowable.]

[Footnote 381: Let it be remembered that the edition was (to quote the title-page) printed by private subscription and for private circulation only and was limited to 500 copies at a high price. Consequently the work was never in the hands of the general public.]

[Footnote 382: This was a favourite saying of Burton's. We shall run against it elsewhere. See Chapter xxxiv., 159. Curiously enough, there is a similar remark in Mr. Payne's Study of Rabelais written eighteen years previous, and still unpublished.]

[Footnote 383: Practically there was only the wearisome, garbled, incomplete and incorrect translation by Dr. Weil.]

[Footnote 384: The Love of Jubayr and the Lady Budur, Burton's A. N. iv., 234; Lib. Ed., iii., 350; Payne's A. N., iv., 82.]

[Footnote 385: Three vols., 1884.]

[Footnote 386: The public were to some extent justified in their attitude. They feared that these books would find their way into the hands of others than bona fide students. Their fears, however, had no foundation. In all the libraries visited by me extreme care was taken that none but the genuine student should see these books; and, of course, they are not purchasable anywhere except at prices which none but a student, obliged to have them, would dream of giving.]

[Footnote 387: He married in 1879, Ellinor, widow of James Alexander Guthrie, Esp., of Craigie, Forfarshire, and daughter of Admiral Sir James Stirling.]

[Footnote 388: Early Ideas by an Aryan, 1881. Alluded to by Burton in A. N., Lib. Ed., ix., 209, note.]

[Footnote 389: Persian Portraits, 1887. "My friend Arbuthnot's pleasant booklet, Persian Portraits," A. N. Lib. Ed. x., 190.]

[Footnote 390: Arabic Authors, 1890.]

[Footnote 391: In Kalidasa's Megha Duta he is referred to as riding on a peacock.]

[Footnote 392: Sir William Jones. The Gopia correspond with the Roman Muses.]

[Footnote 393: The reader will recall Mr. Andrew Lang's witty remark in the preface to his edition of the Arabian Nights.]

[Footnote 394: Kalyana Mull.]

[Footnote 395: The hand of Burton betrays itself every here and there. Thus in