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The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 10

R >> Richard F. Burton >> The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 10




* * * * *

(Here Habicht's fragment ends.)




SCOTT'S MSS. AND TRANSLATIONS.



In 1800, Jonathan Scott, LL.D., published a volume of "Tales,
Anecdotes, and Letters, translated from the Arabic and Persian,"
based upon a fragmentary MS., procured by J. Anderson in Bengal,
which included the commencement of the work (Nos. 1-3) in 29
Nights; two tales not divided into Nights (Nos. 264 and 135) and
No. 21.

Scott's work includes these two new tales (since republished by
Kirby and Clouston), with the addition of various anecedotes,
&c., derived from other sources. The "Story of the Labourer and
the Chair" has points of resemblance to that of "Malek and the
Princess Chirine" (Shirin?) in the Thousand and One Days; and
also to that of "Tuhfet El Culoub" (No. 183a) in the Breslau
Edition. The additional tales in this MS. and vol. of
translations are marked "A" under Scott in our Tables. Scott
published the following specimens (text and translation) in
Ouseley's Oriental Collections (1797 and following years) No.
135m (i. pp. 245-257) and Introduction (ii. pp. 160-172; 228-
257). The contents are fully given in Ouseley, vol. ii. pp. 34,
35.

Scott afterwards acquired an approximately complete MS. in 7
vols., written in 1764 which was brought from Turkey by E.
Wortley Montague. Scott published a table of contents (Ouseley,
ii. pp. 25-34), in which, however, the titles of some few of the
shorter tales, which he afterwards translated from it, are
omitted, while the titles of others are differently translated.
Thus "Greece" of the Table becomes "Yemen" in the translation;
and "labourer" becomes "sharper." As a specimen, he subsequently
printed the text and translation of No. 145 (Ouseley, ii. pp.
349-367).

This MS., which differs very much from all others known, is now
in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.

In 1811, Scott published an edition of the Arabian Nights'
Entertainments, in 6 vols., vol. 1 containing a long
introduction, and vol. 6, including a series of new tales from
the Oxford MS. (There is a small paper edition; and also a large
paper edition, the latter with frontispieces, and an Appendix
including a table of the tales contained in the MS.) It had
originally been Scott's intention to retranslate the MS.; but he
appears to have found it beyond his powers. He therefore
contented himself with re-editing Galland, altering little except
the spelling of the names, and saying that Galland's version is
in the main so correct that it would be useless repetition to go
over the work afresh. Although he says that he found many of the
tales both immoral and puerile, he translated most of those near
the beginning, and omitted much more (including several harmless
and interesting tales, such as No. 152) towards the end of his
MS. than near the beginning. The greater part of Scott's
additional tales, published in vol. 6, are included in the
composite French and German editions of Gauttier and Habicht;
but, except Nos. 208, 209, and 215, republished in my "New
Arabian Nights," they have not been reprinted in England, being
omitted in all the many popular versions which are professedly
based upon Scott, even in the edition in 4 vols., published in
1882, which reprints Scott's Preface.

The edition of 1882 was published about the same time as one of
the latest reissues of Lane's Thousand and One Nights; and the
Saturday Review of Nov. 4, 1882 (p. 609), published an article on
the Arabian Nights, containing the following amusing passage:
"Then Jonathan Scott, LL.D. Oxon, assures the world that he
intended to retranslate the tales given by Galland; but he found
Galland so adequate on the whole that he gave up the idea, and
now reprints Galland, with etchings by M. Lalauze, giving a
French view of Arab life. Why Jonathan Scott, LL.D., should have
thought to better Galland, while Mr. Lane's version is in
existence, and has just been reprinted, it is impossible to say."

The most interesting of Scott's additional tales, with reference
to ordinary editions of The Nights, are as follows:--

No. 204b is a variant of No. 37.

No. 204c is a variant of 3e, in which the wife, instead of the
husband, acts the part of a jealous tyrant. (Compare Cazotte's
story of Halechalbe.)

No. 204e. Here we have a reference to the Nesnas, which only
appears once in the ordinary versions of The Nights (No. 132b;
Burton, v., p. 333).

No. 206b. is a variant of No. 156.

No. 207c. This relates to a bird similar to that in the Jealous
Sisters (No. 198), and includes a variant of 3ba.

No. 207h. Another story of enchanted birds. The prince who seeks
them encounters an "Oone" under similar circumstances to those
under which Princess Parizade (No. 198) encounters the old
durwesh. The description is hardly that of a Marid, with which I
imagine the Ons are wrongly identified.

No. 208 contains the nucleus of the famous story of Aladdin (No.
193).

No. 209 is similar to No. 162; but we have again the well
incident of No. 3ba, and the exposure of the children as in No.
198.

No. 215. Very similar to Hasan of Bassorah (No. 155). As Sir R.
F. Burton (vol. viii., p. 60, note) has called in question my
identification of the Islands of WakWak with the Aru Islands near
New Guinea, I will quote here the passages from Mr. A. R.
Wallace's Malay Archipelago (chap. 31) on which I based it:--"The
trees frequented by the birds are very lofty. . . . . One day I
got under a tree where a number of the Great Paradise birds were
assembled, but they were high up in the thickest of the foliage,
and flying and jumping about so continually that I could get no
good view of them. . . . . Their voice is most extraordinary. At
early morn, before the sun has risen, we hear a loud cry of
'Wawk--wawk--wawk, w k--w k--w k,' which resounds through the
forest, changing its direction continually. This is the Great
Bird of Paradise going to seek his breakfast. . . . . The birds
had now commenced what the people here call 'sacaleli,' or
dancing-parties, in certain trees in the forest, which are not
fruit-trees as I at first imagined, but which have an immense
head of spreading branches and large but scattered leaves, giving
a clear space for the birds to play and exhibit their plumes. On
one of these trees a dozen or twenty full-plumaged male birds
assemble together, raise up their wings, stretch out their necks,
and elevate their exquisite plumes, keeping them in a continual
vibration. Between whiles they fly across from branch to branch
in great excitement, so that the whole tree is filled with waving
plumes in every variety of attitude and motion."

No. 216bc appears to be nearly the same as No. 42.

No. 225 is a variant of No. 135q.




WEIL'S TRANSLATION.



The only approximately complete original German translation is
"Tausend und eine Nacht. Arabische Erzaehlungen. Zum Erstenmale
aus dem Urtexte vollstaendig und treu uebersetzt von Dr. Gustav
Weil," four vols., Stuttgart. The first edition was in roy. 8vo,
and was published at Stuttgart and Pforzheim in 1839-1842; the
last volume I have not seen; it is wanting in the copy in the
British Museum. This edition is divided into Nights, and includes
No. 25b. In the later editions, which are in small square 8vo,
but profusely illustrated, like the larger one, this story is
omitted (except No. 135m, which the French editors include with
it), though Galland's doubtful stories are retained; and there is
no division into Nights. The work has been reprinted several
times, and the edition quoted in our Table is described as
"Zweiter Abdruck der dritten vollstandig umgearbeiteten, mit
Anmerkungen und mit einer Einleitung versehenen Auflage" (1872).

Weil has not stated from what sources he drew his work, except
that No. 201 is taken from a MS. in the Ducal Library at Gotha.
This is unfortunate, as his version of the great transformation
scene in No. 3b (Burton, vol. i., pp. 134, 135), agrees more
closely with Galland than with any other original version. In
other passages, as when speaking of the punishment of Aziz (No.
9a, aa), Weil seems to have borrowed an expression from Lane, who
writes "a cruel wound;" Weil saying "a severe (schwere) wound."

Whereas Weil gives the only German version known to me of No. 9
(though considerably abridged) he omits many tales contained in
Zinserling and Habicht, but whether because his own work was
already too bulky, or because his original MSS. did not contain
them, I do not know; probably the first supposition is correct,
for in any case it was open to him to have translated them from
the printed texts, to which he refers in his Preface.

Two important stories (Nos. 200 and 201) are not found in any
other version; but as they are translated in my "New Arabian
Nights," I need not discuss them here. I will, however, quote a
passage from the story of Judar and Mahmood, which I omitted
because it is not required by the context, and because I thought
it a little out of place in a book published in a juvenile
series. It is interesting from its analogy to the story of
Semele.

When King Kashuk (a Jinni) is about to marry the daughter of King
Shamkoor, we read (New Arabian Nights, p. 182), "Shamkoor
immediately summoned my father, and said, 'Take my daughter, for
you have won her heart.' He immediately provided an outfit for
his daughter, and when it was completed, my father and his bride
rode away on horseback, while the trousseau of the Princess
followed on three hundred camels." The passage proceeds (the
narrator being Daruma, the offspring of the marriage), "When my
father had returned home, and was desirous of celebrating his
marriage Kandarin (his Wazir) said to him, 'Your wife will be
destroyed if you touch her, for you are created of fire, and she
is created of earth, which the fire devours. You will then bewail
her death when it is too late. To-morrow,' continued he, 'I will
bring you an ointment with which you must rub both her and
yourself; and you may then live long and happily together.' On
the following day he brought him a white ointment, and my father
anointed himself and his bride with it, and consummated his
marriage without danger."

I may add that this is the only omission of the smallest
consequence in my rendering of either story.

I have heard from more than one source that a complete German
translation of The Nights was published, and suppressed; but I
have not been able to discover the name of the author, the date,
or any other particulars relating to the subject.




VON HAMMER'S MS., AND THE TRANSLATIONS DERIVED FROM IT.




Several complete copies of The Nights were obtained by Europeans
about the close of the last or the beginning of the present
century; and one of these (in 4 vols.) fell into the bands of the
great German Orientalist, Joseph von Hammer. This MS. agrees
closely with the printed Bul. and Mac. texts, as well as with Dr.
Clarke's MS., though the names of the tales sometimes vary a
little. One story, "The two Wazirs," given in Von Hammer's list
as inedited, no doubt by an oversight, is evidently No. 7, which
bears a similar title in Torrens. One title, "Al Kavi," a story
which Von Hammer says was published in "Mag. Encycl.," and in
English (probably by Scott in Ouseley's Oriental Collections,
vide antea p. 491) puzzled me for some time; but from its
position, and the title I think I have identified it as No. 145,
and have entered it as such. No. 9a in this as well as in several
other MSS., bears the title of the Two Lovers, or of the Lover
and the Beloved.

Von Hammer made a French translation of the unpublished tales,
which he lent to Caussin de Perceval, who extracted from it four
tales only (Nos. 21a, 22, 32 and 37), and only acknowledged his
obligations in a general way to a distinguished Orientalist,
whose name he pointedly suppressed. Von Hammer, naturally
indignant, reclaimed his MS., and had it translated into German
by Zinserling. He then sent the French MS. to De Sacy, in whose
hands it remained for some time, although he does not appear to
have made any use of it, when it was despatched to England for
publication; but the courier lost it on the journey, and it was
never recovered.

Zinserling's translation was published under the title, "Der
Tausend und einen Nacht noch nicht uebersetzte Maehrchen,
Erzaehlungen und Anekdoten, zum erstenmale aus dem Arabischen in's
Franzoesische uebersetzt von Joseph von Hammer, und aus dem
Franzoesischen in's Deutsche von Aug. E. Zinserling, Professor."
(3 vols., Stuttgart and Tuebingen, 1823.) The introductory matter
is of considerable importance, and includes notices of 12
different MSS., and a list of contents of Von Hammer's MS. The
tales begin with No. 23, Nos. 9-19 being omitted, because Von
Hammer was informed that they were about to be published in
France. (This possibly refers to Asselan Riche's "Scharkan,"
published in 1829.) The tales and anecdotes in this edition
follow the order of The Nights. No. 163 is incomplete, Zinserling
giving only the commencement; and two other tales (Nos. 132b and
168) are related in such a confused manner as to be
unintelligible, the former from transposition (perhaps in the
sheets of the original MS.) and the latter from errors and
omissions. On the other hand, some of the tales (No. 137 for
instance) are comparatively full and accurate.

A selection from the longer tales was published in English in 3
vols. in 1826, under the title of "New Arabian Nights
Entertainments, selected from the original Oriental MS. by Jos.
von Hammer, and now first translated into English by the Rev.
George Lamb." I have only to remark that No. 132b is here
detached from its connection with No. 132, and is given an
independent existence.

A complete French re-translation of Zinserling's work, also in 3
vols., by G. S. Trebutien (Contes inedits des Mille et une
Nuits), was published in Paris in 1828; but in this edition the
long tales are placed first, and all the anecdotes are placed
together last.

The various MSS. mentioned by Von Hammer are as follows:--

I. Galland's MS. in Paris.

II. Another Paris MS., containing 870 Nights. (No. 9 is
specially noticed as occurring in it.) This seems to be the same
as a MS. subsequently mentioned by Von Hammer as consulted by
Habicht.

III. Scott's MS. (Wortley Montague).

IV. Scott's MS. (Anderson).

V. Dr. Russell's MS. from Aleppo (224 Nights).

VI. Sir W. Jones' MS., from which Richardson extracted No.
6ee for his grammar.

VII. A. MS. at Vienna (200 Nights).

VIII. MS. in Italinski's collection.

IX. Clarke's MS.

X. An Egyptian MS. at Marseilles.

XI. Von Hammer's MS.

XII. Habicht's MS. (==Bres. text).

XIII. Caussin's MS.

XIV. De Sacy's MS.

XV. One or more MSS. in the Vatican.




TRANSLATIONS OF THE PRINTED TEXTS.



These are noticed by Sir R. F. Burton in his "Foreword" (vol. i.,
pp. x-xii.) and consequently can be passed over with a brief
mention here.

Torrens' edition (vol. 1) extends to the end of Night 50 (Burton,
ii., p. 118).

Lane's translation originally appeared in monthly half-crown
parts, from 1839 to 1841. It is obvious that he felt himself
terribly restricted in space; for the third volume, although much
thicker than the others, is not only almost destitute of notes
towards the end, but the author is compelled to grasp at every
excuse to omit tales, even excluding No. 168, which he himself
considered "one of the most entertaining tales in the work"
(chap. xxix., note 12), on account of its resemblance to Nos. 1b
and 3d. Part of the matter in Lane's own earlier notes is
apparently derived from No. 132a, which he probably did not at
first intend to omit. Sir R. F. Burton has taken 5 vols. to cover
the same ground which Lane has squeezed into his vol. 3. But it
is only fair to Lane to remark that in such cases the publisher
is usually far more to blame than the author.

In 1847 appeared a popular edition of Lane, entitled, "The
Thousand and One Nights, or the Arabian Nights Entertainments,
translated and arranged for family reading, with explanatory
notes. Second edition." Here Galland's old spelling is restored,
and the "explanatory notes," ostentatiously mentioned on the
title page, are entirely omitted. This edition was in 3 vols. I
have seen a copy dated 1850; and think I have heard of an issue
in 1 vol.; and there is an American reprint in 2 vols. The
English issue was ultimately withdrawn from circulation in
consequence of Lane's protests. (Mr. S. L. Poole's Life of E. W.
Lane, p. 95.) It contains the woodcut of the Flying Couch, which
is wanting in the later editions of the genuine work; but not
Galland's doubtful tales, as Poole asserts.

Several editions of the original work, edited by Messrs. E. S.
and S. L. Poole, have appeared at intervals from 1859 to 1882.
They differ little from the original edition except in their
slightly smaller size.

The short tales included in Lane's notes were published
separately as one of Knight's Weekly Volumes, in 1845, under the
title of "Arabian Tales and Anecdotes, being a selection from the
notes to the new translation of the Thousand and One Nights, by
E. W. Lane, Esq."

Finally, in 1883, Mr. Stanley Lane Poole published a classified
and arranged edition of Lane's notes under the title of "Arabian
Society in the Middle Ages."

Mr. John Payne's version of the Mac. edition was issued in 9
vols. by the Villon Society to subscribers only. It appeared from
1882 to 1884, and only 500 copies were printed. Judging from the
original prospectus, it seems to have been the author's intention
to have completed the work in 8 vols., and to have devoted vol. 9
to Galland's doubtful tales; but as they are omitted, he must
have found that the work ran to a greater length than he had
anticipated, and that space failed him. He published some
preliminary papers on the Nights in the New Quarterly Magazine
for January and April, 1879.

Mr. Payne subsequently issued "Tales from the Arabic of the
Breslau and Calcutta (1814-18) editions of the Thousand Nights
and One Night, not occurring in the other printed texts of the
work." (Three vols., London, 1884.) Of this work, issued, like
the other, by the Villon Society, to subscribers only, 750 copies
were printed, besides 50 on large paper. The third volume
includes indices of all the tales in the four principal printed
texts.

Finally we have Sir R. F. Burton's translation now in its
entirety before his subscribers. It is restricted to 1,000
copies. (Why not 1,001?) The five supplementary vols. are to
include tales wanting in the Mac. edition, but found in other
texts (printed and MS.), while Lady Burton's popular edition will
allow of the free circulation of Sir R. F. Burton's work among
all classes of the reading public.




COLLECTIONS OF SELECTED TALES.



There are many volumes of selections derived from Galland, but
these hardly require mention; the following may be noticed as
derived from other sources:

1. Caliphs and Sultans, being tales omitted in the usual editions
of the Arabian Nights' Entertainments. Re-written and re-arranged
by Sylvanus Hanley, F. L. S., etc., London, 1868; 2nd edition
1870.

Consists of portions of tales chiefly selected from Scott, Lamb,
Chavis and Cazotte, Trebutien and Lane; much abridged, and
frequently strung together, as follows:--

Nos. 246, 41, 32 (including Nos. 111, 21a, and 89); 9a (including
9aa [which Hanley seems, by the way, to have borrowed from some
version which I do not recognise], 22 and 248); 155, 156, 136,
162; Xailoun the Silly (from Cazotte); 132 and 132a; and 169
(including 134 and 135x).

2. Ilam-en-Nas. Historical tales and anecdotes of the time of the
early Kalifahs. Translated from the Arabic and annotated by Mrs.
Godfrey Clerk, author of "The Antipodes, and Round the World."
London, 1873.

Many of these anecdotes, as is candidly admitted by the authoress
in her Preface, are found with variations in the Nights, though
not translated by her from this source.

3. The New Arabian Nights. Select tales not included by Galland
or Lane. By W. F. Kirby, London, 1882.

Includes the following tales, slightly abridged, from Weil and
Scott: Nos. 200, 201, 264, 215, 209, and 208.

Two editions have appeared in England, besides reprints in
America and Australia.




SEPARATE EDITIONS OF SINGLE OR COMPOSITE TALES.



6e (ee).--The Barber's Fifth Brother.


Mr. W. A. Clouston (in litt.) calls attention to the version of
this story by Addison in the "Spectator," No. 535, Nov. 13, 1712,
after Galland. There is good reason to suppose that this is
subsequent to the first English edition, which, however, Addison
does not mention. There is also an English version in Faris'
little Arabic Grammar (London, 1856), and likewise in
Richardson's Arabic Grammar. The latter author extracted it from
a MS. belonging to Sir W. Jones.



5.--Nur Al-din and Badr Al-din Hasan.


There are two Paris editions of the "Histoire de Chems-Eddine et
de NourEddine," edited by Prof. Cherbonneau. The first (1852)
contains text and notes, and the second (1869) includes text,
vocabulary and translations.




7.--Nur Al-din and Anis Al-jalis.


An edition by Kasimiraki of "Enis' el-Djelis, ou histoire de la
belle Persane," appeared in Paris in 1867. It includes text,
translation and notes.




9.--King Omar Bin Al-nu'aman.


There is a French abridgment of this story entitled, "Scharkan,
Conte Arabe, suivi de quelques anecdotes orientales; traduit par
M. Asselan Riche, Membre de la Societe Asiatique de Paris" (Paris
and Marseilles, 12mo, 1829, pp. 240). The seven anecdotes
appended are as follows: (1) the well-known story of Omar's
prisoner and the glass of water; (2) Elhedjadj and a young Arab;
(3)=our No. 140; (4) Anecdote of Elhedjadj and a story-teller;
(5)=our No. 86; (6) King Bahman and the Moubed's parable of the
Owls; (7)=our No. 145.



133.--Sindbad the Seaman.


This is the proper place to call attention to a work specially
relating to this story, "Remarks on the Arabian Nights
Entertainments; in which the origin of Sindbad's Voyages and
other Oriental Fictions is particularly described. By Richard
Hole, LL.D." (London, 1797, pp. iv. 259.)

It is an old book, but may still be consulted with advantage.

There are two important critical editions of No. 133, one in
French and one in German.

1. Les Voyages de Sind-bad le marin et la ruse des Femmes. Contes
arabes. Traduction litterale, accompagnee du Texte et des Notes.
Par L. Langles (Paris, 1814).

The second story is our No. 184.

2. Die beiden Sindbad oder Reiseabenteuer Sindbads des
Seefabrers. Nach einer zum ersten Male in Europa bedruckten
Aegyptischen Handschrift unmittelbar und wortlich treu aus den
Arabischen uebersetzt und mit erklaerenden Anmerkungen, nebst zwei
sprachlichen Beilagen zum Gebrauch fuer abgehende Orientalisten
herausgegeben von J. G. H. Reinsch (Breslau, 1826).



135.--The Craft and Malice of Women.


The literature of this cluster of tales would require a volume in
itself, and I cannot do better than refer to Mr. W. A. Clouston's
"Book of Sindibad" (8vo, Glasgow, 1884) for further information.
This book, though privately printed and limited to 300 copies, is
not uncommon.



136.--Judar and His Brethren.


An edition of this story, entitled "Histoire de Djouder le
Pecheur," edited by Prof. Houdas, was published in the
Bibliotheque Algerienne, at Algiers, in 1865. It includes text
and vocabulary.



174.--The Ten Wazirs.


This collection of tales has also been frequently reprinted
separately. It is the Arabic version of the Persian Bakhtyar
Nameh, of which Mr. Clouston issued a privately-printed edition
in 1883.

The following versions have come under my notice:--

1. Nouveaux Contes Arabes, ou Supplement aux Mille et une Nuits
suivies de Melanges de Litterature orientale et de lettres, par
l'Abbe * * * (Paris, 1788, pp. 425).

This work consists chiefly of a series of tales selected and
adapted from the Ten Vazirs. "Written in Europe by a European,
and its interest is found in the Terminal Essay, on the
Mythologia Aesopica" (Burton in litt.).

2. Historien om de ti Vezirer og hoorledes det gik dem med Kong
Azad Bachts Soen, oversat af Arabisk ved R. Rask (8vo, Kobenhavn,
1829).

3. Habicht, x. p. vi., refers to the following:--Historia decem
Vezirorum et filii regis Azad-Bacht insertis XIII. aliis
narrationibus, in usum tironum Cahirensem, edid. G. Knoes,
Goettingen, 1807, 8vo.

He also states that Knoes published the commencement in 1805, in
his "Disquisitio de fide Herodoti, quo perhibet Phoenices Africam
navibus circumvectos esse cum recentiorum super hac re sententiis
excussis.--Adnexurn est specimen sermonis Arabici vulgaris s.
initium historiae filii regis Azad-Bacht e Codice inedito."

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