Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/394

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NOTES AND QUEEIES. [io> s. n. OCT. 22, im.

'OMAR KHAYYAM. IT may be interesting to note the earliest appearance of any text or translation of 'Omar Khayyam in Europe. Hitherto the earliest mention of him recorded has been in Von Hammer Purgstall's ' Geschichte der Schonen Redekunste Persiens' (Vienna, 1818), in which translations of twenty-five quatrains occur at pp. 80-83. From that time until Prof. E. B. Cowell "introduced" 'Omar to FitzGerald nothing was heard of him, and nothing appeared in print until FitzGerald's first edition in 1859, if we except Garcin de Tassy's ' Note,' printed from information supplied to him by FitzGerald in 1857 (Paris). I have recently had my attention called to p. 137 of vol. v. (1816) of that interesting collection published in Vienna by a society of amateurs (of whom Baron Von Hammer Purgstall was one), and entitled 'Fund- gruben des Orients/ Here I find the Persian text of the quatrain which is No. 411 in the Lucknow Lithographs of 1878 and 1894, and No. 89 in the Bodleian MS. from which FitzGerald worked. To it is appended : A FRAGMENT OF OMAR KIIIAM. By H. G. Keene.

'Twas yesterday, I chanced to stop

In passing, at a potter's shop.

The churl was stript, and in a heat

Working some fresh clay with his feet ;

While at each kick, methought the clay,

In gentle accents, seemed to say,

" Not quite so rough ; for, lately, mine Was the same form, my friend, as thine." This is the quatrain which FitzGerald ren- dered in his first edition :

For in the Market-place, one Dusk of Day,

I watch'd the Potter thumping his wet clay: And with its all obliterated Tongue

It murmur' d : *' Gently, Brother, gently, pray."

Baldly and literally translated, the quatrain reads :

I saw a potter in the bazar yesterday, he was violently pounding the fresh clay, and that clay said to him in mystic language, " I was once like thee, so treat me well." The Persian text in the 'Fundgruben' is identical with that of the Bodleian MS., the Lucknow Lithograph haying gararm, " reve- rently," for riiku, "well," in the fourth line.

It is further interesting to note that this H. G. Keene was Professor of Arabic and Persian, and Registrar, of Haileybury College, where, in 1825, was born to him the H. G. Keene who became an Indian judge, and wrote his autobiography in ' A Servant of John Com- pany' (London, 1897). This latter, in an article in Macmillaris Magazine for November, 1887, entitled 'Omar Khayyam, 7 attacks the literalness of FitzGerald, and says, " These

quatrains give no accurate representation of the original in any of their versions," a state- ment whose gross and glaring inaccuracy ha& been clearly demonstrated within the last ten years.

Apart from 'Omar Khayyam, this " potter and the pot" story has been told by Ferid-ud- dm 'Attar in his 'Mantik-ut-tair ' (the 'Par- liament of Birds '), 11. 2345-59, FitzGerald's beautiful translation of which is to be found at p. 467 of vol. ii. of his ' Literary Remains * (Macmillan, 1889).

EDWARD HERON-ALLEN.

EPITAPHIANA.

IN Whitchurch Graveyard, Dorsetshire, is a tomb bearing the following strange conca- tenation of names (I quote from memory) :

Arabella JennerennaRaquetenria Amabel Grunter,, daughter of John Grunter.

This I saw for myself and can vouch for, but not for that which is said to be in Axminster Churchyard or in its neighbourhood, and which runs :

Anna Maria Matilda Sophia Johnson Thompson- Kettleby Rundell.

It sounds like a csesuraless hexameter rur* mad, and I shall never forget the uncon- trollable fits of laughter with which I first heard it from the late Rev. Edward Peck, of Lyme Regis.

In Southwell (Notts) there is also said to- be a sepulchral inscription on the death of a young mother :

Twelve years I was a maid,

One year I was a wife ; Half an hour I was a mother, And then I lost my life.

FKANCIS KING.

The following epitaphs, none of which I have seen in print, were all copied oil the spot. At Snibston, Leicestershire, date 1771 :

A neighbour good, a prudent wife,

A tender parent while she had life,

Always good-natured to the poor,

And freely gave them of her store.

We hope these virtues will her comfort be

When she her dearest Saviour comes to see.

At Dorchester, Oxfordshire, date 1811 : Death spyed these new sprung flowers, which find- ing fit

For blessed Abram's bosom gather'd it. The souls of Babes perfume th' Almighty's Throne Rose Buds are far more sweet than Roses blown.

At All Saints' Church, Hastings- date 1820 :

Here lies an only darling Boy

Who was his widow'd Mother's joy;