User:TheSkullOfRFBurton/Arabia, Egypt, India: A Narrative of Travel/Introduction

INTRODUCTION: VERY PERSONAL
he kindness shown to my "Inner Life of Syria" makes me long to presume on another narrative; but I picture to myself the following conversation with my publisher :-—

"No really, Mrs. Burton, I cannot undertake your book, because we all know everything about India; we have sucked it dry, and are sick of it."

"True, Mr. A.," I reply, "but you said the same of 'Syria, Palestine, and the Holy Land,' and yet I found enough of unwritten matter to give you MSS. which you had to cut down to two big vols. Perhaps, with my 'griffin' eyes, ears, and brain, I may have seen something from a different aspect to those who have preceded me for the last few hundred years. Do try me, dear Mr. A.! Give me another chance!"

Mr. A. relents, and accepts my MSS. Then the printers have to be conciliated. They always strike work when MSS. from Captain Burton or myself go in, we write so badly. Also I have to think of my readers, who are ever kind, generous, and just; and will not, I trust, be disgusted with a somewhat hackneyed title. For my part, I hope that between London and Goa we may chance to find something which is not generally known.

I always think of a prima donna at Trieste, with regard to the public. We import our operas from Milan two years before they appear in London. We have an excellent Opera house and three theatres, always full, and the Triestines are so severe and so critical that artistes become extremely nervous; they know if they can pass Trieste they may sing anywhere. One evening, a very plain, but first rate, prima donna appeared on the stage. She had not yet opened her mouth; they all began to hiss and hoot. She advanced with great resolution to the footlights, and said: "Cari Triestini, I know I am frightful, but I did not come to be looked at, I came to sing. Hear me before you hiss." There was a dead silence. She opened her mouth, and before she had finished the first few bars, the applause was deafening and prolonged. She remained a favourite ever after.

Our English public is colder perhaps, but just, and generous, and sincere.