Its hues adorn the fairest wreath,
But sweetest through a dewy veil
Its colours glow, its odours breath.
And thus thy charms in brightness rise—
When wit and pleasure round thee play,
When mirth sits smiling in thine eyes,
Who but admires their sprightly ray?
But when thro’ pity’s flood they gleam,
Who but must love their soften’d beam?
It was not among the troubadours and provencals of France, and the improvisatori of Italy, that the custom of extempore recitation alone existed. It flourished and was carried to great perfection in Arabia during the caliphat, and in many other Oriental nations. The Arabians indeed are said to have been the inventors both of extempore recitation and of rhyme, from whom it came to the Spaniards, and thence into France and Italy. [] And in all the Oriental nations it was almost constantly accompanied with music. We have, throughout the Arabian Nights, continual examples of this; and there never seems to have been a grand entertainment, where these recitations, as well as dancing, were not introduced. As a specimen of this, and it is the last I shall insert, I have been tempted to give the following extempore verses by Ebn Alramacram, the occasion of which is said, by Abulfeda, to have been as follows: Carawash, sultan of Mousel, being in a party with his principal musician, Barkaidy, his vizier, Ebn Fadhi, his chamberlain, Jaber, and Ebn Alramacram, the poet, he determined to amuse himself at the expense of his companions. He therefore commanded Alramacram to recite some verses, which, at the same time that they satirised his officers, should compliment himself. The poet obeyed: and taking the night which happened to be stormy, for his subject, instantly replied as follows: