FERISHTAH'S FANCIES
His genius was jocular, but, when disposed, he could be very serious.—Article "Shakespear," Jeremy Collier's Historical etc. Dictionary, 2d edition, 1701.
You, Sir, I entertain you for one of my Hundred; only, I do not like the fashion of your garments: you will say they are Persian: but let them be changed.—King Lear, Act III. Sc. 6.
There is a loose connection between this group of poems and certain forms of Oriental literature, notably The Fables of Bidpai or Pilpay, Firdausi's Sháh-Námeh, and the Book of Job; specific instances may easily be noted; but Browning himself said in a letter to a friend, written soon after the publication of Ferishtah's Fancies: "I hope and believe that one or two careful readings of the Poem will make its sense clear enough. Above all, pray allow for the Poet's inventiveness in any case, and do not suppose there is more than a thin disguise of a few Persian names and allusions. There was no such person as Ferishtah—the stories are all inventions.... The Hebrew quotations are put in for a purpose, as a direct acknowledgment that certain doctrines may be found in the Old Book, which the Concoctors of Novel Schemes of Morality put forth as discoveries of their own."