CHAPTER VIII.
Southey’s Thalaba—The Suggestions of the Evil One—Cotonolapes, the Magician—The Garden of Aloaddin—The Old Man of the Mountain—The Assassins—Their Rise and Fall—Gay’s Conjurer—Sir Guido, the Crusader—Guy, Earl of Warwick.
“Are you going to give us a specimen of the late Laureate’s conversions,” said Thompson, “that you borrowed my Southey?”
“Even so—to claim for the magic garden of Aloaddin, the gem of the sixth book of Thalaba, at least a Latin form, if it must not be regarded as a striking instance of my Eastern theory.”
“Southey did not come to your book for this idea; he was content with the apparently historical account of Purchas in his Pilgrims, or the more elaborate description of the notorious Mandeville,” rejoined Thompson.
“I am very much at a loss to appreciate your account,” said Herbert, “as Southey, Purchas, and Mandeville are nearly all equally unknown to me.”
“The best means of showing the progress of the story and its conversion by the poet,” said Lathom, “will be to commence with the old monk’s very short version; let that be followed by Mandeville, and that veritable author by Southey’s description. The monk’s tale is,