Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/505

 9* S. HI. JUNE 24, '99.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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original work, includes many stories from other sources, has been sentimentalized and bowdlerized, and makes no pretence to accuracy or authority. Galland's work has been again and again reprinted in all shapes, and is at least more vivacious than rival editions in England. Dr. Mardrus, who is an enthusiast and a stylist as well as an Orientalist, intends his book for scholars, and it is in this light as a work of scholarship it has a right to be judged. The present volume contains the twenty- four opening nights, the histories of ' Schahriar and Schahzaman,' ' The Merchant with the Afrit,' ' The Fisherman and the Afrit,' 'The Porter and the Young Ladies of Bagdad,' the stories of the three royal merchants and of Noureddin and his family, all, with some abridgment and expurgation, familiar to readers of every country. Future volumes will, it is said, be more comprehensive as well as less generally known.

It has long been determined, in the interest of science, that all products of human intelligence, however contrary to modern tastes and modes of thought with the possible exception of a few essentially depraved products of erotomania and kindred perversions shall be accessible to the genuine student. At a time when the origin of primitive culture and the development of social life are for the first time the subject of scientific analysis, it would be fatal if documents of highest significance were to be tampered with or sup- pressed. As it stands, the ' Arabian Nights ' is an absolutely trustworthy picture of Oriental life between the tenth and sixteenth centuries of our era. Western life knows nothing similar to or sym- pathetic with it, and literature possesses few equal treasures. Until within the last few years, the bulk of it, though manuscripts are numerous in Europe and Asia, has been unknown and inacces- sible. A certain portion has long been familiar in editions which are adequate to the requirements of the general reader. To this portion the reader for amusement is counselled to confine himself. Mr. Payne first, and Sir Richard Burton afterwards, brought the whole within the ken of English scholarship. The books they have published are now among the most costly of modern days. It is to be feared that zeal for scientific knowledge is not wholly responsible for the high prices brought by these translations. Still, their utility is acknow- ledged, and the world having once possessed them will not willingly let them go. We now reach the point at which the value of this new edition to English readers becomes manifest. Books such as those of Payne and Burton the latter especially- written in the vernacular, require to be kept under lock and key. It is not likely that prurient curiosity will lead many far through Burton's crabbed pages. Still less likely is it that innocence will devote itself to the study of matter so un- inviting. None the less the volumes must be kept out of general reach, and the responsibility of constant attention to this is burdensome. Burton's notes, moreover, insist upon matters which would be passed over unconsciously by the general public. To a style as pleasant and lucid as that of Mr. Payne, Dr. Mardrus unites an apparent uncon- sciousness of offence which communicates itself to the reader. His book may thanks to the language in which it is written and its eminently scientific appearancebe left upon the shelves in any house- hold where knowledge of French is not as complete as that of English ; and if by any chance a volume

s taken down it will forthwith be restored. Such notes as Dr. Mardrus supplies are, moreover, purely philological. Not the least effort is made to draw attention to points in which Oriental civilization differs most widely from our own. Most of what is low first introduced will be lightly passed over, its signification being probably unperceived. In the case of the three ladies of Bagdad the indelicacy of the description cannot possibly be glossed over. In behalf of these we can only advance the plea of Dr. Mardrus that Arab literature is wholly guilt- less of pornographic intention, and that gaiety the franc rire of Rabelais, the naivete of a fabliau is the aim of the writer, not the bitter cynicism of a Swift or the perverse subtlety of the literature of the ruelle. The scenes to which we refer are dis- missed by Lane, the most orthodox and pure of translators, with the statement that they " convey a very erroneous idea of the manners of Arab ladies," though he naively owns to having wit- nessed at private festivities in Cairo "abominable scenes, of which ladies, screened behind lattices, were spectators." In the story of Noureddin, Dr. Mardrus shows commendable reticence in dealing with the assault of Agib upon his father. Few, probably, will conceive how strong a light is thrown upon Eastern customs in this scene. In the Eng- lish rendering of Lane what is done is inconceivable. Agib, followed by the man who, unconsciously to both, is his father, sees him looking with inex- pressible tenderness, and, fancying that his eye bears "an expression of deceit" (!), throws a stone at him, wounding him seriously in the forehead. We cannot at present deal further with a book of great interest and value, which will commend itself warmly to many of our readers. Dr. Mardrus dedicates his volumes to the memory of our whilom friend Stephane Mallarme, by whose style his own, in his sparkling address to his readers, seems to have been influenced.

Modern England from the Reform Bill to the Present Time. By Justin McCarthy, M.P. (Fisher Unwin.)

THE second instalment of Mr. McCarthy's ' Modern England' completes the work. It is written with the same studied and careful impartiality as the first, and in the portions, even, in which we know that the writer's feelings must be most actively interested, it remains an accurate and a passionless record. As a summary of events it is of very general utility and interest. It cannot aim at being more, and the charge of the omission of celebrated names the only charge we have seen brought against it is futile. To have mentioned all the distinguished men who have lived within the period Mr. McCarthy depicts would have reduced the whole to a mere nomenclature. Be- ginning with an account of the extravagant punish- ments in vogue in the earlier decades of the present century, this book deals with transportation and the ticket-of-leave system, with a curious contrast between the working of the latter in Ireland and in England. The Irish State Church is then discussed before we come to the interesting, if fairly familiar account of the opening out of the reign of Queen Victoria. ' The Foundation of the Canadian Dominion' and the Chartist collapse follow. We have the history of steam, telegraphy, and post- age, and then find our attention drawn to the more than half-forgotten Stockdale case and to the opium question. ' The Irish National Question '