The Life of Sir Richard Burton Part 56

Lib. Ed., i., 71.]

[Footnote 469: "The water prisoned in its verdurous walls."--"Tale of the Jewish Doctor."

[Footnote 470: "Like unto a vergier full of peaches." [Note.--O.E. "hortiyard"

Mr. Payne's word is much better.]--"Man of Al Zaman and his Six Slave Girls."

[Footnote 471: "The rondure of the moon."--"Ha.s.san of Ba.s.sorah." [Shakespeare uses this word, Sonnet 21, for the sake of rhythm. Caliban, however, speaks of the "round of the moon."]

[Footnote 472: "That place was purfled with all manner of flowers." [Purfled means bordered, fringed, so it is here used wrongly.] Payne has "embroidered," which is the correct word.--"Tale of King Omar," Lib.

Ed., i., 406.]

[Footnote 473: Burton says that he found this word in some English writer of the 17th century, and, according to Murray, "Egremauncy occurs about 1649 in Grebory's Chron. Camd. Soc. 1876, 183." Mr. Payne, however, in a letter to me, observes that the word is merely an ignorant corruption of "negromancy," itself a corruption of a corruption it is "not fit for decent (etymological) society."

[Footnote 474: A well-known alchemical term, meaning a retort, usually of gla.s.s, and completely inapt to express a common bra.s.s pot, such as that mentioned in the text. Yellow copper is bra.s.s; red copper is ordinary copper.]

[Footnote 475: Fr. ensorceler--to bewitch. Barbey d'Aurevilly's fine novel L'Ensorcelee, will be recalled. Torrens uses this word, and so does Payne, vol. v., 36. "Hath evil eye ensorcelled thee?"

[Footnote 476: Lib. Ed., ii., 360.]

[Footnote 477: Swevens--dreams.]

[Footnote 478: Burton, indeed, while habitually paraphrasing Payne, no less habitually resorts, by way of covering his "conveyances," to the clumsy expedient of loading the test with tasteless and grotesque additions and variations (e.g., "with gladness and goodly gree," "suffering from black leprosy," "grief and grame," "Hades-tombed," "a garth right sheen,"

"e'en tombed in their tombs," &c., &c.), which are not only meaningless, but often in complete opposition to the spirit and even the letter of the original, and, in any case, exasperating in the highest degree to any reader with a sense of style.]

[Footnote 479: Burton's A. N., v., 135; Lib. Ed., iv., 95.]

[Footnote 480: Or Karim-al-Din. Burton's A. N., v., 299; Lib. Ed., iv., 246; Payne's A. N., v. 52.]

[Footnote 481: Le Fanu had carefully studied the effects of green tea and of hallucinations in general. I have a portion of the correspondence between him and Charles d.i.c.kens on this subject.]

[Footnote 482: Burton's A. N., Suppl. ii., 90-93; Lib. Ed., ix., 307, 308.]

[Footnote 483: Lib. Ed., iv., 147.]

[Footnote 484: "The Story of Janshah." Burton's A. N., v., 346; Lib. Ed., iv., 291.]

[Footnote 485: One recalls "Edith of the Swan Neck," love of King Harold, and "Judith of the Swan Neck," Pope's "Erinna," Cowper's Aunt.]

[Footnote 486: Burton's A. N., x., 6; Lib. Ed., viii., 6.]

[Footnote 487: Burton's A. N., viii., 275; Lib. Ed., vii., 12.]

[Footnote 488: Burton's A. N., vii., 96; Lib. Ed., v., 294.]

[Footnote 489: Burton's A. N., Suppl. Nights, vi., 438; Lib. Ed., xii., 258.]

[Footnote 490: Burton's A. N., x., 199; Lib. Ed., viii., 174; Payne's A. N., ix., 370.]

[Footnote 491: The writer of the article in the Edinburgh Review (no friend of Mr. Payne), July 1886 (No. 335, p. 180.), says Burton is "much less accurate" than Payne.]

[Footnote 492: New York Tribune, 2nd November 1891.]

[Footnote 493: See Chapter x.x.xiii.]

[Footnote 494: Still, as everyone must admit, Burton could have said all he wanted to say in chaster language.]

[Footnote 495: Arbuthnot's comment was: "Lane's version is incomplete, but good for children, Payne's is suitable for cultured men and women, Burton's for students."

[Footnote 496: See Chapter xii., 46.]

[Footnote 497: Burton's A. N., x., 180, 181; Lib. Ed., viii., 163.]

[Footnote 498: Burton's A. N., x., 203; Lib. Ed., viii., 184.]

[Footnote 499: Of course, all these narratives are now regarded by most Christians in quite a different light from that in which they were at the time Burton was writing. We are all of us getting to understand the Bible better.]

[Footnote 500: Lady Burton gives the extension in full. Life, vol. ii, p. 295.]

[Footnote 501: The Decameron of Boccaccio. 3 vols., 1886.]

[Footnote 502: Any praise bestowed upon the translation (apart from the annotations) was of course misplaced--that praise being due to Mr.

Payne.]

[Footnote 503: Lady Burton's surprise was, of course, only affected. She had for long been manoeuvering to bring this about, and very creditably to her.]

[Footnote 504: Life, ii., 311.]

[Footnote 505: Dr. Baker, Burton's medical attendant.]

[Footnote 506: Burton's Camoens, i., p. 28.]

[Footnote 507: Life, vol. i., p. 396.]

[Footnote 508: Note to "Khalifah," Arabian Nights, Night 832.]

[Footnote 509: Childe Harold, iv., 31, referring, of course, to Petrarch.]

[Footnote 510: Terminal Essay, Arabian Nights.]

[Footnote 511: It reminded him of his old enemy, Ra's.h.i.+d Pasha. See Chap. xiv.]

[Footnote 512: Pilgrimage to Meccah, ii., 77.]

[Footnote 513: Mission to Gelele, ii., 126.]

[Footnote 514: Task, Book i.]

[Footnote 515: By A. W. Kinglake.]