The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume X Part 50

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 t.i.tle in Torrens. One t.i.tle, "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 t.i.tle 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 t.i.tle 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Von Hammer made a French translation of the unpublished tales, which he lent to Caussin de Perceval, who extracted from it four tales only (Nos. 21a, 22, 32 and 37), and only acknowledged his obligations in a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 t.i.tle, "Der Tausend und einen Nacht noch nicht ubersetzte Mahrchen, Erzahlungen und Anekdoten, zum erstenmale aus dem Arabischen in's Franzosische ubersetzt von Joseph von Hammer, und aus dem Franzosischen in's Deutsche von Aug. E. Zinserling, Professor."

(3 vols., Stuttgart and Tubingen, 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 a.s.selan 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 t.i.tle 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 Hab.i.+.c.ht.

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 Ma.r.s.eilles.

XI. Von Hammer's MS.

XII. Hab.i.+.c.ht'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 pa.s.sed 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 s.p.a.ce; for the third volume, although much thicker than the others, is not only almost dest.i.tute 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, ent.i.tled, "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 t.i.tle 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 a.s.serts.

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 t.i.tle 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 cla.s.sified and arranged edition of Lane's notes under the t.i.tle 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 antic.i.p.ated, and that s.p.a.ce 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 princ.i.p.al 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 cla.s.ses 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 Sylva.n.u.s 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.

G.o.dfrey Clerk, author of "The Antipodes, and Round the World."

London, 1873.